New Zealand's main coal exporter said yesterday it has lost millions of dollars in profits due to lengthy delays at one of its mines -- thanks to 5,300 rare giant land snails.
State-owned miner Solid Energy said that conservation rules mean it has been forced to mine at a snail's pace, costing the company about NZ$35 million (US$26 million) in the current financial year.
It blamed 19 months of delays in accessing high quality coking coal on the west coast of New Zealand's South Island on the conservation requirement that rare giant Powelliphanta Augustus snails in the area be found, collected and moved to a new habitat before mining could proceed.
Conservationists say the giant land snails in the area are a rare sub-species.
The cost figure includes NZ$25 million in lost profit this financial year because of delayed export coal shipments, and NZ$10 million in costs, chief executive Don Elder said.
It has cost the company more than NZ$6,000 for each of the 5,300 native land snails found and relocated so far, he said, adding that the company was now breaking contract commitments because of delays.
It would lose up to five export shipments, totaling 300,000 tonnes of coal, to China, India, Japan and South Africa before the end of June, he added.
Solid Energy had expected that it would take only a few months to clear the Stockton mining area of the snails. But many more snails had been found than the 500 to 1,000 that conservationists predicted, including some in areas where they had never been found before.
Save Happy Valley Coalition, the group spearheading the campaign to save the snails, said Solid Energy could have saved itself and the snails by mining elsewhere.
"Obviously if they had left that core habitat, or even a portion of that core habitat [undisturbed], they would have protected that species with a guarantee that it survives," spokeswoman Francis Mountier said.
"There's still no science that says this is going to be a successful relocation," she added.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
RSS