Pike
River Coal Limited (PRCL) is developing the Pike River Coal Mine in the
Paparoa Ranges of New
Zealand's South Island.
The mine is being developed to extract a coking coal deposit of the Brunner
Seam, some 46 km northeast of Greymouth, using a combination of continuous
miners, road-headers and hydraulic extraction.

The
mining area is located within Department of Conservation (DOC) land and is
adjacent to the escarpment of the Paparoa Range
and the Paparoa
National Park. The mine
will use its elevation advantage to hydraulically flume coal from the working
faces to the pit bottom area where it will be slurried to approximately 35 per
cent density of solids and pumped down a slurry line to the coal prep plant some
10.5 km down the Pike River
Valley. The coal will be
sold on the export market as a high quality coking coal for international steel
making.

PRCL
faces significant challenges to achieving the goal of cost effective production.
The remoteness, high rainfall (greater then 6 metres per year on average),
temperature variation and restrictions on access to this subalpine environment
have driven the project to develop some distinctive solutions. These include the
establishment of survey control in such a difficult environment with vertical
and sub-vertical rock faces, significant vegetation and steep slopes by using
helicopter survey, aerial photography and LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging)
aerial survey. PRCL has also commenced designing the placement of the main
ventilation fans in an underground chamber in the stone drive.