60 | MINING Powering essential services from page 58 BCML’s most valuable resource is its people. Birchfield Energy & Resources No job toobigor small at SMHydraulics&Auto-Electrical • Hydraulic & Industrial hose • Components, filters & Vertex hydraulic oil • Reseal hydraulic motors & cylinders • West Coast Wide 24/7 • Century Yuasa batteries of all sizes • Starter motors, alternators & diagnostics • Air-Con repair 144Tainui Street (top of Brewery Hill), Greymouth Phone (03) 7689393 Dennis Minehan M: 027 778 0023 P: 03 753 3206 E: sales@minehanagencies.co.nz W: www.minehanagencies.co.nz 91MainRd, Hari Hari, SouthWestland Manufactured right here on the West Coast Specialist Manufacturers & Suppliers to Industry Chemicals • Cleaning • Safety Equipment • Aerosols Lubricants • Spill Kits • Degreasers • Flocculants Last calendar year approximately 200,000 tonnes of coal was extracted from Giles Creek and fed into the domestic commercial/industrial market with some keeping the homes of West Coasters cosy during the cold winter months. Giles Creek has estimated reserves of 16 million tonnes of recoverable coal in the current permitted area. “With current mining operations there would be over a hundred years worth of coal in Giles Creek, so unless the Government was to ban coal mining or it was no longer economically viable to burn coal, the resource and demand gives us the ability to carry on mining it.” A much smaller operation producing between 30,000 tonne and 50,000 tonnes a year, around 10 staff are directly employed in mining operations at the Strongman mine. The coal is a high-quality thermal coal, not of sufficient rank to be a true hard coking coal but a valued blending coal to improve lower ranking thermal coal for the South Island industrial market. Valued by customers and suppliers alike, the coal is also supplied to a number of customers in the South Island, some of which is exported. to page 62
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=