Since it was found that the rare population of giant snails inhabits the area around the mine, Solid Energy has found itself at the centre of ongoing environmental protests.

Earlier this year, the company was granted wildlife permits to move the snails by hand and to carry out direct transfer of the snail habitat to an area which will not be mined.

A further 20 snails collected from the ridgeline of the minesite were also relocated this week about 800m to the north of the source site near Stockton Plateau, which will not be mined.

The ridgeline area holds about 5 million tonnes of high-quality coking coal. The coal at Mt Augustus, valued at about $NZ400 million, is needed to blend and raise the specifications of lower quality coal in other parts of the site to meet customer orders.

DOC scientists will compare the survival of the snails which have been kept in captivity with those released direct from the ridgeline and a further 20 snails which have been tagged and will remain within their natural habitat on the ridgeline.

All 60 snails have been marked with transponders to assist the monitoring.

DOC west coast conservator Mike Slater said while the number of animals released may seem small, it is based on current knowledge of the snails’ ecology and weighing up all risks and benefits.

“This is clearly seen as the first step towards further releases. In the short term there will be further releases onto this particular site to determine carrying capacity, once initial survival is confirmed,” Slater said.

Solid Energy national environmental manager Mark Pizey said Solid Energy is taking the lead in identifying further suitable release sites for the 1500-plus snails currently in captivity at the DOC.

“Our first priority is to investigate sites on or near the Stockton Plateau to identify those which have habitat characteristics that would be suitable to release snails into. Decisions on release sites will be closely advised by the project’s Technical Advisory Group, a group of DOC and Solid Energy snail/invertebrate specialists and ecologists,” Pizey said.

Solid Energy estimates that snail searches have been completed in about 25% of the Mt Augustus area within the coal mining licence.

The number of live snails found to date is now leading experts to project that the Mt Augustus snail population may number as many as 5000.