Ohai export order

Press, 28 December 1988, Page 25

Ohai export order

PA Invercargill An export order for more than 200,000 tonnes of coal fines a year from the Wairaki mine at Ohai has been confirmed but not yet signed. Mr R. B. Atkinson, of Indonesian-based Atkinson Mineral Developments, said the first trial shipment of about 30,000 tonnes should leave Bluff for South-East Asia in two or three months. He would not disclose the buyer, except to say the fines were mainly for Government-owned power stations. Representatives would visit Southland in the New Year. “Since Southland has not exported a tonne of coal for 100 years, they need to see it,” Mr Atkinson said. He was confident enough about the deal to •go ahead. . Coal fines, a byproduct of coal recovery, have been a problem at the Ohai mines for First State Coal Mines and now Coalcorp, with a stockpile of about 200,000 tonnes estimated two years ago. The proportion of fines in recovered coal has increased with mechanisation. The closing of the Milburn Cement works and meat plants in the South Island this year badly affected the market for Wairaki fines. The Wairaki mine produces about 70,000 tonnes of fines a year, but Mr Atkinson said Coalcorp had assured him of sufficient supply.