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Pike River, located in New Zealand's South Island, has been tunnelling through hard rock to provide access to its hard coking coal deposit.
“The Pike mine development is proceeding well on all fronts. The tunnel is 87 percent complete and the infrastructure and mining equipment necessary for first coal production is coming together as planned," chief executive Gordon Ward said.
"Good progress" is also being made in developing the pit bottom on the eastern side of the Hawera fault with 365m (63%) of the excavation complete.
The pit bottom works will be largely completed before the tunnel is pushed through the fault.
The coal preparation plant is more than 65% complete and the linked coal conveyors from the plant to the planned stockpile areas have been installed in the past week.
A major recruitment drive is underway with the company needing 45 staff prior to first coal production.
