Pike River Coal has commenced railing coal from its rail loadout facility at Ikamatua on the South Island's West Coast to the Port of Lyttelton in preparation for its second export shipment of premium hard coking coal.
Pike River's inaugural export shipment of 20,000 tonnes of premium hard coking coal went to India in February 2010. That shipment was worth approximately NZ$3.3 million.
Chief Executive Gordon Ward says one train will run from Ikamatua to Port Lyttelton daily for the next few days, increasing to two trains per day in the latter half of this week.
"Our second export shipment, also 20,000 tonnes, is again destined for the same life-of-mine customer, Gujarat NRE and is worth approximately NZ$6 million - significantly more than the last coal shipment due to higher coal prices.
"Our coal will be loaded onto a panamax vessel at Port Lyttelton. The vessel's current expected time of arrival at Lyttelton is 4 September 2010."
