Dual-listed Bathurst Resources, which plans to mine two million tonnes a year of premium hard coking coal from its West Coast tenements, yesterday announced a deal with Westport Harbour for exclusive use of a coal-handling facility to ship and export coal.
In a brief statement to the ASX yesterday, Bathurst's chief executive, Hamish Bohannan, said once the heads of agreement was finalised, Westport would then construct a coal unloading system, stockpile area, ship loader and a wharf.
Bathurst would pay the port for the use of the facility and provision of coal-handling services.
"Coal will be transported by rail from the Buller coal project to the port from where Westport Harbour will provide coal-handling services to receive, unload, stockpile, store, and load vessels," he said.
Bathurst is still to gain consents and begin mining, but with an expected downturn in premium coking coal from flood-hit Queensland, Bathurst's share price has leapt about 65% since early December to $1.40 yesterday; following its completion of several tenement acquisitions for $NZ96.3 million and raising $NZ242 million.
In its quarterly report to the end of December, Bathurst outlined its target to be producing coking coal from the Buller project on the Denniston plateau by December this year.
Production is forecast to rise from 650,000 tonnes to one million tonnes by the beginning of 2013, then to two million tonnes by the end of that year.
