Pike River will construct and operate a $NZ12 million rail loading facility at Ikamatua on the floor of New Zealand’s Grey Valley, 22km from its minesite and alongside a major rail line.

Pike’s underground mine, located 50km northeast of Greymouth on New Zealand’s South Island, is expected to produce 1 million tonnes of hard coking coal for at least 18 years.

The new rail loading facility, which was the less carbon intensive transport option, is due for completion in December this year.

The new rail facility came hand in hand with the recent announcement of a trucking contract awarded to transport company TNL Group to haul Pike’s coal to the rail loading facility.

The 18-year transport contract is for trucking up to 1.3 million tonnes per annum, 22km to the new rail loader at Ikamatua.

Full production from Pike is scheduled for mid-2009 which will see 10 truck and trailer units carrying 30t of coal running each day and one to two loadings onto rail a day.

Last month Pike secured contracts for its hard coking coal at a premium $US300 per tonne with two Japanese steel mills.