Pike River’s emissions estimations have come under the spotlight of late with New Zealand Green Party co-leader Jean Fitzsimons claiming Pike River had used misleading advertising and has failed to warn investors about the financial risks of investing in the Pike River Coal mine. Fitzsimons claimed the mine would generate 6.8 million tonnes of carbon emissions from fugitive methane gas over its life.

Pike River Coal has refuted those claims, saying its estimates show the mine would release 1.4Mt. It said Pike River had considerably lower methane gas levels than commonly found in underground mines because part of the seam was already exposed to the atmosphere.

It said total emissions could be reduced to as low as 184,000t if all methane is captured, burnt and therefore converted to carbon dioxide.

The company said it was impossible to provide a reliable cost estimate given the Government was still developing and introducing an emissions trading system.

However, it was confident in saying the cost would not be material in the context of the project.

“If the final ETS was to result in a cost of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of $15 per tonne and all of that cost was to be visited on Pike River, the potential liability for Pike River could range from 15c to $1.11 per tonne of coal mined each year depending on the steps taken to mitigate those potential costs,” the company said.

“This compares to the annual operating costs per tonne of Pike River coal mined each year of $77/t [estimated life of mine average].”