Australian hard coking coal miner Bathurst Resources has announced that it is now able to proceed with earthworks and site preparation at its Escarpment mine in New Zealand in readiness to quickly move into full mining operations once global coking coal prices recover.
Coal production areas will be cleared and other earthworks will be undertaken to prepare the site to transition to steady state operations when economic conditions warrant full commercial production. Bathurst stated that activities are scheduled to commence in July this year.
According to Bathurst, coal recovered in the initial construction phase will be sold into the domestic industrial market. It is expected that approximately 35,000 mt will be recovered in the first six months of site works. Some coal will also be dispatched for trials to coke and steel producers in Japan, India and other Asian markets.