PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Coal miner Bathurst Resources on Wednesday announced that it would close its Canterbury coal mine, in New Zealand.
The company told shareholders that ongoing costs and the delays associated with obtaining regulatory consent for the current operations, as well as an inability to reach an agreement on longer-term economic solutions with local regulatory bodies, had resulted in the decision to cease operations at Canterbury.
“We have worked hard to turn around a small mine into a well-run, award winning and environmentally sound operation that provides jobs for New Zealanders in a regional area,” said Bathurst CEO Richard Tacon.
“We have reached the point at which the timeframes and cost of regulatory processes outweigh the commercial returns of continuing to operate the mine. This was an outcome that we fought to prevent, recognizing the cost of the staged job losses that will follow. And also that our customers will now need to source coal from much further away, meaning an increased transportation cost and carbon footprint.”
Tacon said that coal would continue to be supplied to customers until June this year, after which the mine would formally move to care and maintenance.
The company’s other operations will not be impacted by the decision.