Another Pike River Milestone - Coal Prep Plant Completed
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Pike River Coal Limited (PRC) | 2:52 pm, Thursday 4 September 2008 | PRC | 0.970 |
 0.000 |
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ANOTHER PIKE RIVER (PRC) MILESTONE - COAL PREPARATION PLANT COMPLETED
A major coal processing project has been completed by Pike River Coal Limited
(Pike River) as it gears up for production.
The $19 million Coal Preparation Plant (CPP), which will separate saleable
coal from rock and other reject materials, has been completed and
commissioning will commence once coal is available.
Once the 2.3 kilometre access tunnel to the Brunner coal seam is completed,
coal from the mine will be pump-fed 10 kilometres down a steel pipeline to
the CPP in the foothills of the Paparoa Range for processing and initial
stockpiling.
Chief Executive Gordon Ward says "the CPP incorporates the latest coal
processing technology and is the largest such plant in New Zealand".
The plant is designed to process up to 1.5 million tonnes a year of raw coal
from the mine. The CPP was constructed by Nelson-based Brightwater
Engineering in a joint venture company with an Australian design engineer.
It has been completed within budget.
One key design feature is that the water used in the coal slurry pipeline to
bring raw coal down from the mine, will be washed and pumped back up a
parallel pipe to the mine for re-use in a constantly recirculating and
environmentally-friendly process.
