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.
RARE EVENT: While some cultures have a negative view of eclipses, others see them as a chance to show how people can work together, a scientist said Stargazers across a swathe of the world marveled at a dramatic red “Blood Moon” during a rare total lunar eclipse in the early hours of yesterday morning. The celestial spectacle was visible in the Americas and Pacific and Atlantic oceans, as well as in the westernmost parts of Europe and Africa. The phenomenon happens when the sun, Earth and moon line up, causing our planet to cast a giant shadow across its satellite. But as the Earth’s shadow crept across the moon, it did not entirely blot out its white glow — instead the moon glowed a reddish color. This is because the
DEBT BREAK: Friedrich Merz has vowed to do ‘whatever it takes’ to free up more money for defense and infrastructure at a time of growing geopolitical uncertainty Germany’s likely next leader Friedrich Merz was set yesterday to defend his unprecedented plans to massively ramp up defense and infrastructure spending in the Bundestag as lawmakers begin debating the proposals. Merz unveiled the plans last week, vowing his center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) — in talks to form a coalition after last month’s elections — would quickly push them through before the end of the current legislature. Fraying Europe-US ties under US President Donald Trump have fueled calls for Germany, long dependent on the US security umbrella, to quickly
Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Sosoaca, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll. Earlier this month, Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau barred Calin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40 percent ahead of the rerun election. Georgescu, a fierce EU and NATO critic, shot to prominence in November last year when he unexpectedly topped a first round of presidential voting. However, Romania’s constitutional court annulled the election after claims of Russian interference and a “massive” social media promotion in his favor. On Saturday, an electoral commission statement
Chinese authorities increased pressure on CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd over its plan to sell its Panama ports stake by sharing a second newspaper commentary attacking the deal. The Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office on Saturday reposted a commentary originally published in Ta Kung Pao, saying the planned sale of the ports by the Hong Kong company had triggered deep concerns among Chinese people and questioned whether the deal was harming China and aiding evil. “Why were so many important ports transferred to ill-intentioned US forces so easily? What kind of political calculations are hidden in the so-called commercial behavior on the
RSS