Coal and Energy widens search

Press, 14 July 1982, Page 34

Coal and Energy widens search

The newly-listed . mining company, Coal and Energy New Zealand, Ltd, has applied for coal prospecting Icences in three areas which it believes hold the key to the development of. coal sales on both the domestic and export markets. The three areas are between Nightcaps and Ohai in western Southland, in Reefton and Buller, and in the Waitewhena Valley adjacent to the existing Squires Creek mine in the King Country. The chairman of Coal and Energy (Mr A. J. Wakefield) said that if the licences were approved, the company would be in an excellent position to reach both the domestic market and export sales objectives outlined in the prospectus. “The Nightcaps-Ohai coal prospecting licence applications cover land in which we hope to ascertain sufficient reserves of higher grade coal to blend with existing low grade coal reserves to provide an over-ail quality product.

“We also want to obtain reserves of coal that can be worked, underground so that Coal and Energy can achieve a stable cost mix between relatively cheap open cast mining and more expensive underground mining, as early as possible. This will ensure that the additional cost of underground workings are spread over a longer period,” Mr Wakefield said.

“Underground mining also means - that - Coal production can continue during the wet winter months which can suspend open cast work. “Another reason for establishing the extent of these ■coal reserves is to be able to

assure overseas customers that we have access to enough quality coal to sustain a long-term trade.”. On the West Coast, four areas have been for near Reefton and in the Buller in order to position the company to take advantage of the proposed export of coal through a single point mooring buoy to be located off the coast near Waimangaroa.

“We have already received inquiries from overseas and we are confident that establishing the reserves of coal which the company has access to should result in firm proposals for the supply of coal in the long term," Mr Wakefield said. ■ “This area should also yield low sulphur coal which, when blended with the high sulphur coal from the company’s Charming Creek mine, will produce an environmentally acceptable product for the domestic market.

“Because Coal and Energy has only limited reserves in its existing Squires Creek mine in the Waitewhena Valley, we have also applied for a prospecting licence there to establish sufficient

reserves to underwrite ' the long-term programme of assisting industrial users of oil to convert to coal,” Mr Wakefield said.