Milestones

Since early 2008 Pike River Coal has achieved a series of project milestones which give it the ability to mine and process one million tonnes of coal a year, including:

Aug 2006	Construction of a 10 kilometre access road to the mine portal
Aug 2007	Completion of Administration Offices, workshops and power to the mine site
Oct 2008	Completion of a 2.3 kilometre access tunnel under the Paparoa Ranges to break through to the Brunner seam
Oct 2008	Construction of the eastern pit bottom area
Oct-Dec 2008	Delivery of heavy coal cutting machinery including a $5 million roadheader, and two $4 million continuous miners
Dec 2008	Delivery of an in-seam drilling rig to plot the best road map for the cutting machines to use in the coal seam
Jan 2009	Completed raiseboring a $7 million, 108 metre deep, ventilation shaft from the underground mine to the surface
Jan 2009	Completion of the $20 million coal preparation plant capable of processing 1.5 million tonnes of ‘run of mine’ coal a year by separating coal from rock and other debris
Feb 2009	Completion of a 10-kilometre water-fed slurry pipeline system to get coal from the pit face to the coal preparation plant
Feb 2009	Work commences to restore ventilation shaft
June 2009	Full ventilation restored to mine and mining recommences
Feb 2010	First export coal shipment
Apr 2010	Access roadway through rock graben back into coal

Milestones for transporting the coal to markets in Japan, India and elsewhere include:

Nov 2007	Signing an 18-year contract with State Owned Enterprise, Solid Energy, to rail up to 1.3 million tonnes a year to the export Port of Lyttelton, a distance of 250 kilometres
June 2008	Signing an 18-year contract with the Nelson-based TNL Group Limited to truck up to 1.3 million tonnes a year from the coal preparation plant to a new rail loadout facility on the main rail line at Ikamatua, 22 kilometres away
Jan 2009	Completion of the $10 million rail loadout facility at Ikamatua