Domestic Ohai coal will be on sale again by mid-August, after Solid Energy found 50,000 tonnes of recoverable resource at its open-cast mine at Ohai, where it is rehabilitating earlier mining work.
State-owned enterprise Solid Energy and listed Australian miner Bathurst Resources - together targeting annual West Coast coal extraction beyond five million tonnes - have agreed to collaborate on mining the Denniston Plateau.
The Gore District Council has approved the proposed briquette plant at Craig Rd, south of Mataura, but the project still needs water and air-quality consent from Environment Southland.
Mataura residents are expressing concern about possible noise levels from Solid Energy's proposed briquette plant near the town, but expect it will be built anyway.
The Southern District Health Board has called on experts in air and water quality to analyse the public health risks of Solid Energy's proposed coal-briquetting demonstration plant near Mataura.
State-owned enterprise Solid Energy's coal sales have passed 3 million tonnes for the year to date, and are up 18% for the quarter to March, underpinned by rising commodity prices. At the end of March, Solid Energy paid a $20 million dividend to the Crown.
The Green Party is calling for public notification - which would allow for submissions - on Solid Energy's proposal to build a lignite conversion briquetting plant near Mataura, in Southland, for up to $25 million.
Solid Energy is defending its plans for Southland lignite after Parliament's environmental watchdog suggested it made no sense for taxpayers to spend billions of dollars subsidising even one lignite-to-diesel conversion plant.
The Solid Energy-owned company that makes biodiesel from canola expects to double production, buoyed by the work of a pair of Otago Polytechnic-backed southern fuel consortiums.
Interest remains high in the South Island's deposits of high-grade specialist hard-coking coal for export, and its poor cousin, low-grade lignite - southern resources long measured in billions of tonnes.
Privately-owned Hydro Developments Ltd today received the green light for its "green" power scheme using polluted water from the Stockton open cast mine in Buller.
Multibillion-dollar plans for a lignite-to-diesel conversion plant and urea plant in Southland are so significant the Government could fast-track their resource consents, Gore District Council mayor Tracy Hicks says.
A similar process to that used to get the caffeine out of coffee is likely to be used to extract oil from Southland lignite.
State-owned coal miner Solid Energy says it has secured exclusive New Zealand rights to technology which converts low-grade lignite and biomass to high-grade coal and synthetic crude oils.
State-owned coal miner Solid Energy is ordering a further $65 million of plant and equipment for its Stockton opencast mine, north of Westport.
