Almost 140 jobs are to be axed at Solid Energy's Stockton mine, the company announced today.

Bathurst Resources, which has cut jobs and delayed the start to its Denniston mine, may raise up to $6.87m in a discounted share placement.

Forest & Bird (F&B) has pulled the plug after a two-year legal battle to stop Bathurst Resources' new Buller coal mine.

NZ Oil and Gas has a moral obligation to pay Pike River families it's claimed - after shareholders yesterday voted not to fork out $3.41m awarded by judge.

New Zealand Oil and Gas shareholders voted yesterday not to pay reparation of $3.41 million to the Pike River families.

Grey District mayor Tony Kokshoorn says the resource consent approval for Escarpment coal mine on the West Coast's Denniston Plateau is great news for the district.

Westport residents showed their support for a new open-cast coal mine yesterday by decorating the town in the Buller colours of red and blue.

Forest and Bird says efforts to rehabilitate the Stockton Plateau after open-cast coalmining has missed the point, with bright green grass sown rather than restoring the natural tussock landscape.

Bathurst Resources has cleared another hurdle in its struggle to start coal mining on the Denniston Plateau near Westport but still needs the blessing of courts and faces tough market conditions.

If Meridian Energy had already floated, it's a fair bet that its share price would have dropped after the Opposition unveiled its electricity policy a week ago.

It was "insane" for a New Zealand-born mine worker to smoke in an underground coal mine in Queensland, a New Zealand coal mining industry boss says.

When people like the PM talk of an orderly transition to a post-smelter environment, they are talking about the scrapping of generating capacity, writes Brian Fallow.