KEY POINTS:
Protests have cost Solid Energy tens of millions of dollars but the company has been spared any further financial pain from the Greenpeace coal ship blockade.
The state-owned enterprise has been paid for the 60,000 tonnes of coal loaded on to the bulk carrier Hellenic Sea and will not be liable for any penalty caused by the delay of several hours.
The ship is now heading for Dunkirk in France after climate-change activists failed to stop it leaving Port Lyttelton on Tuesday.
Solid Energy said the cost of managing the snail protest and delayed shipments from its main export coal mine at Stockton near Westport was $25 million.
Security for its mine sites and staff now costs $1 million a year.
The company on Tuesday reported a $2.7 million loss for the first half of its financial year, due to production difficulties at Stockton and lower-than-expected demand from Genesis Energy's Huntly power station, which burned more gas.
The Save Happy Valley Coalition was concerned about giant native powelliphanta augustus snails, preventing the Stockton mine's expansion for months.
Today the company will release an audit of its environmental work over the past year, including a 20-minute DVD showing the snail repatriation project and other research on mine-site rehabilitation.
Conservation Department studies had shown 90 per cent of snails had survived at one new site, but only 70 to 80 per cent at the other two sites.
In its half-year report Solid Energy said it expected to be able to capitalise on soaring prices in the second half because it sells on long-term contracts.
The 2.8 million tonnes it exports is mostly hard coking coal for steel making, which has in the past year fetched US$95 ($118.30) a tonne but is forecast to double when contract prices are set within the next few weeks.
