KEY POINTS:
Pike River Coal has put back the date it will reach its target coal seam by a month but says it won't affect production targets.
The company developing a new coal mine of the west coast of the South Island said yesterday it had rescheduled tunnelling to meet safety and construction requirements.
A final 215m drive to the Brunner coal seam, including cutting through the Hawera fault, would start on July 10.
The tunnel would intersect the coal seam around the end of August, about a month later than expected.
Pike said it was doing some other tasks earlier, reducing the disruption of the rescheduling.
Once the tunnel passes through the Hawera fault flame-proof equipment had to be used because methane gas was expected to be encountered.
The Coal Preparation Plant was expected to be completed by July, a slurry pipeline was essentially complete and the first continuous miner was due for delivery to site in late August.
Work has started on the train load out facilities at Ikamatua.
The company has employed 28 staff of an expected 60-person workforce.
The mine is still expected to produce 100,000 tonnes of saleable coal by March 31 next year and a further 100,000 tonnes in the following quarter ended June 30.
- NZPA
