Roa mine
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Roa mine was an underground and surface coal mine located 30 kilometers northeast of Greymouth, on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island.
The mine, which was owned by New Zealand Coal & Carbon (NZCC), closed in 2016.[1]
Location
The map below shows the approximate location of the now-closed mine.
Background
In 1907, the Paparoa Coal Company began mining in what is now the Roa mining area. The operation was taken over by the New Zealand State Coal Mines in 1947. Mining ceased in 1971 after 1.6 million tones of coal had been extracted from the two major seams. For the next 30 years there was sporadic interest in the deposits and some opencast mining was carried out until the surface workings exhausted the reserves in 1995.[2]
The ROA Mining Company was formed in 2001 and began a significant expansion programme, including the opening of new access drives and the construction of a primary wash plant. Roa was the largest privately owned mine on New Zealand's West Coast.
Roa mine was predominantly an underground mine with a smaller open cut operation. It produced high quality hard coking coal from up to four coal seams. The coal was extracted using bord-and-pillar and hydro monitor techniques, then pumped to the surface in slurry pipelines to the processing plant. Coal was transported by road to Stillwater, then by rail to the Christchurch port of Lyttleton.[3]
In 2006, Solid Energy contracted with Roa Mining to provide transport and shiploading for up to 150,000 tonnes of coal a year from Roa mine. Since 1989, Solid Energy and Roa Mine coal had frequently been blended together for international export.[4] Japan, China and India as well as the South American and European continents are the main markets.[5] Roa coal was used in specialty, foundry and metallurgical coking, as well as in the production of activated and other carbon products.[6]
Environmental, health, and safety issues
In September 2006, a Roa miner was killed when a tunnel collapsed about 800 m from the entrance of the mine.[7] A 2011 audit, carried out in the aftermath of the Pike River disaster, found that the operation lacked the systematic management practices that would be expected in an organization of that size. The report also emphasized the need for an effective gas monitoring system. National Secretary of the Engineering, Printing & Manufacturing Union (EPMU), Andrew Little, stated that, “'We need industry wide standards that are properly enforced. The one code of practice we have is not even mandatory.”[8]
Closure
In January 2016, it was announced that the Roa mine would close due to low coal prices, which made the 153,000-tonne-capacity mine economically unviable.[9] In its last full year of operation (2015), it produced 24,101 tonnes of coal.[10]
Mine Details
- Operator: ROA Mining Company Ltd.[11]
- Owner: New Zealand Coal & Carbon Ltd (NZCC)[12]
- Coordinates: -42.35144, 171.377853 (approximate)
- Location: Near Blackball and 30 km northeast of Greymouth, on the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand
- Status: Closed (2016)[1]
- Production Capacity: 0.0241 million tonnes per annum (2015)
- Total Resource:
- Mineable Reserves:
- Coal Type: Bituminous. High quality hard coking coal[13]
- Mine Type: Underground (bord-and-pillar) & surface
- Start Year: 1907
- Source of Financing:
Articles and Resources
Sources
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Joanne Carroll, "Last underground West Coast mine closes, 20 jobs lost", Stuff, 26 January 2016.
- ↑ "History", New Zealand Coal & Carbon website, Archived from the original on 26 January 2021, Accessed May 2023.
- ↑ NZCC, "Welcome to Roa Mining Company", accessed December 2012
- ↑ Solid Energy, "Roa Mining and Solid Energy sign transport agreement", accessed December 2012
- ↑ Francis Mining, "Market information", accessed April 2012
- ↑ NZCC, "Welcome to Roa Mining Company", accessed December 2012
- ↑ NZ Herald, "Miner killed in tunnel collapse", 8 September 2006
- ↑ Voxy, "Near enough just not good enough says EPMU", accessed December 2012
- ↑ "ROA Mine to close", Scoop Independent News, 25 January 2016.
- ↑ "2015 production figures", New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals website, Accessed May 2023.
- ↑ "Welcome to ROA Mining Company Ltd", ROA Mining Company website, Archived from the original on 26 January 2021, Accessed May 2023.
- ↑ NZ Coal & Carbon,"Welcome to NZ Coal & Carbon Ltd", website accessed December 2012
- ↑ Ministry of Economic Development, "Energy data file 2011", accessed December 2012
