Bathurst says hearing on mine consents to begin

Wednesday 27th April 2011

Australian-based Bathurst Resources says it could begin work on an open cast coal mine in the Buller district by September or October if resource consents are approved and land access arrangements are finalised, including a concession from the Department of Conservation.

Buller Coal Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary, has 16 resource consent applications with the West Coast Regional Council and eight with the Buller District Council for the proposed Escarpment Mine Project.

Three independent commissioners will conduct a hearing in Westport beginning on June 7 to consider the applications for consents under the Resource Management Act. The hearing is expected to take up to three weeks. A decision is expected about three weeks after the hearing closes.

The mine in a 200ha permit area in the southern part of the Denniston Plateau is expected to produce about one million tonnes of premium hard coking coal per year.

The councils have already publicly notified the applications and submissions closed on October 22, 2010. The timing of mining would also depend on whether there are appeals to the commissioners' decision.

The Pike River mine where 29 workers died in November was on Department of Conservation administered land near Greymouth. It was an underground mine.

NZPA

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