COAL PRODUCTION

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 82, 6 April 1944, Page 6

COAL PRODUCTION

OPEN-CAST WORKING

WEST COAST POSSIBILITIES

/ GREYMOUTH, April 5. Discussing the development of opencast coal mines on the West Coast, Mr. C. H. Benney, Under-Secretary of Mines, stated today that good progress had been made with those at Stockton and Charleston and in the Buller Gorge, as well as those on which work was proceeding in the Reef ton area. Mr. R. T. H. Dale, inspector of mines, has been temporarily relieved of his duties and has been allotted the special post of district superintendent of coal production, paying particular attention to open-cast development and the general trend of bituminous coal production. Among areas in the Buller district considered suitable for open-cast working were two in the Buller Gorge, near Berlins, said Mr. Benney. These had not yet been fully tested, but from a visual survey it could be said that they should give a reasonably substantial output of fairly good household coal for a considerable period. Work on one of these areas would be started shortly and in this and other fields parties were at work assessing the quantity of coal available.

At Stockton an open-cast mine with a capacity of about 150 tons was already working. . It was, he said, difficult to estimate exactly the extent of the Stockton deposits, but there was a reasonable hope that a very large area would be developed by the. open-cast method.

The field at Charleston for open-cast working was also an extensive one, said Mr. Benney, and it was expected that production would be proceeding there in two or three weeks. Transport would limit the quantity produced from that area, also the capacity of the' market to absorb the type of household coal that would be mined, but the output would probably be 100 tons daily. In both the Reef ton areas the coal was of a bituminous type suitable for steaming purposes. The mine which was already operating was producing 80 tons daily. That at Burkes Creek was expected to commence production m two or three weeks.