Stockton Mine
| Stockton Mine | |
|---|---|
| Mine: | Open pit |
| Location: | 25 km northeast of Westport , Buller District , West Coast , South Island , New Zealand |
| Coordinates: | 41 ° 40 'S, 171 ° 52' E geographic coordinates |
| Raw material: | Hard coal |
| Delivery rate: | 2 million tons / year (2009) |
| Operator: | Solid Energy New Zealand |
| Employees: | 228 (2016) |
The Stockton Mine is an open-cast coal mine by Solid Energy New Zealand on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand . The mine is the largest of its kind in the country.
geography
The Stockton Mine is about 25 km northeast of Westport and just under 3 km south of Granity , which is located directly on New Zealand State Highway 67 on the west coast of the South Island. The open pit mine, which is between 500 m and 1,100 m above sea level , is located in Buller Coalfield , has a southwest-northeast extension and extends over a length of 7 km and a width of 3 km. The entire area has a length of 12 km and a maximum width of 5 km. The small settlement of Stockton, namesake for the opencast mine, is located at the northern end of the coal mining area. The 1105 m high Mount Frederik is located directly in the opencast mine and is also affected by the mining .
The mine
As of 2017, the open-cast mine consisted of eight mining fields, from which the coal is transported by lorries to the plant in Ngakawau on New Zealand State Highway 67 and from there to its destination by rail and truck. The coal, which is transported by rail, goes to Christchurch to be exported from there via Lyttelton Port .
In 2009 the company stated that it would extract two million tons of coal from the open pit. With the same extraction rate, the coal reserves would last until 2028, it was estimated.
Solid Energy New Zealand employed over 1000 people in the mine in 2012. At the beginning of 2016, the number of employees was only 225 plus 44 temporary workers and the company announced that it would cut another 41 jobs. This was justified with the constantly falling price for cabbage on the world market.
literature
- Solid Energy New Zealand (Ed.): Stockton Mine . Christchurch April 2009 (English, Online [PDF; 387 kB ; accessed on March 3, 2017]).
Individual evidence
- ↑ The coordinates and length of the Tekapo Canal were determined by Google Earth .
- ↑ Topo250 maps - West Coast - Greymouth and Reefton - Wairau River - Lake Sumner . Land Information New Zealand , accessed March 3, 2017 .
- ↑ a b Solid Energy New Zealand (Ed.): Stockton Mine . 2009.
- ^ Coal Transport . Solid Energy New Zealand , archived from the original on March 26, 2017 ; accessed on May 16, 2019 (English, original website no longer available).
- ↑ Lee Scanlon : More job lossses for West Coast's Stockton mine . In: The New Zealand Herald . NZME. Publishing , March 9, 2016, accessed March 3, 2017 .