Ikamatua Rail Loadout Facility
Pike River is railing its hard coking coal from the West Coast to the east coast Port of Lyttelton for export.
That meant developing a loadout facility next to the main railway line and as close to the mine as practical. To achieve this, a $10 million facility has been constructed 22 kilometres away, near the small farming community of Ikamatua.
The loadout centre includes a rail loop constructed by OnTrack and a coal conveyor where trains stop to be loaded with coal delivered by trucks from Pike River's coal preparation plant.
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| Ikamatua Rail Loadout Depot |
The rail loadout facility is far enough away from Ikamatua to minimise the operational impact for local residents. To avoid detrimental environmental impact it is built on unproductive land made up of old dredge tailings.
The 250 kilometre journey to Lyttelton is currently handled by train sets of 30 wagons, and loading at Ikamatua takes less than one-and-a-half hours per train.
When Pike River's production reaches one million a tonnes a year, trains will be loaded at the rate of one or two a day.
The new rail loadout centre at Ikamatua is the first built in New Zealand to handle trains with 45 wagons.