Coast coal miner Bathurst Resources expects to spend potentially up to $A6 million ($NZ7.8 million) this financial year in coal exploration, assaying and mine design concepts.
The project is several months behind schedule as Bathurst is about to face three Environment Court challenges over some of the consents it was granted by two West Coast councils last year.
Bathurst Resources managing director Hamish Bohannan yesterday said more than $A2 million had been spent on exploration this financial year, with four drilling rigs being kept on site throughout the year. He estimated a total $A4 million-$A6 million of expenditure for the full year.
The overall costs included not only drilling, but mine design, analysis and assaying of a variety of minerals found in core samples, he said when contacted.
"We need to determine where the coal is, and just as importantly work out which areas will not be mined; to be set aside and preserved," he said.
Bathurst has recently upgraded its overall Denniston plateau resource estimates to near 82 million tonnes; eventually targeting production of premium grade hard coking coal to export about two million tonnes a year.
Mr Bohannan said the results from recent months of test drilling samples were "not likely to see much movement" in the overall 82 million tonne resource estimate.
Bathurst has permits for 540ha of tenements in the south of the plateau, wanting to initially mine 650,000 tonnes of premium hard coking coal, then move to one million tonnes per year by 2013 and then two million tonnes within 12 months; with a three-decade mine life projection.
The project has cost Bathurst more than $100 million to fund to date and it has raised about $242 million to fund operations.
State-owned enterprise Solid Energy, Bathurst's neighbour with adjacent tenements near Westport, yesterday applied to the Buller District and West Coast Regional Councils for consent to develop a five million tonne coking coal resource at its Stockton open-cut mine, to the north of Westport.
If successful, the company's plan is to begin developing the Mt William North block early in 2015. That would take about a year and Mt William would contribute 500,000 tonnes a year to the mine's output during the following decade.
