Pike River tunnel delayed a month

Monday 18th August 2008

Pike River tunnel progress delayed by one month

Pike River Coal, the mining company digging a tunnel to intercept the Brunner seam on the West Coast, said the project has been delayed a month because of rock conditions.

The shares fell 1.6% to NZ$1.80, trimming their surge this year to about 65%, a stand-out on the NZX. Tunneling slowed to as little as 1 to 2 metres a day since clearing the Hawera fault on August 4, less than the expected rate of 5 metres a day, according to Peter Whittall, Pike's mines general manager.

The tunnel, which will be about 2.3 kilometres on completion, has 153 metres to go, he said. Pike River plans to extract at least 17.6 million tonnes over the next 18 years.

In June, the coal miner said it had settled the sales price of its premium hard coking coal with two Japanese steel mills and its Indian shareholders at a record US$300 per tonne for deliveries in the year ended 31 March, 2009.

By Jonathan Underhill

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