Pike River Coal's second export shipment of approximately 20,000 tonnes of premium hard coking coal worth around USD 6 million is scheduled to depart Port of Lyttelton for India.

Mr Ward said that "Our coal was already stockpiled in Lyttelton ready for loading and will soon be on its way to one of our life of mine customers, Gujarat NRE who were also the recipients of our first export shipment in February this year. The Port of Lyttleton has confirmed that while there had been some damage to the port infrastructure around the coal loading area, this has had limited affect on our shipment and the vessel is expected to depart on November 3rd 2010.”

Mr Ward said that "Miners working underground at the time of the earthquake were unaware of the event and felt no effects. The Midland rail line suffered some track damage and required some quite extensive inspections to structures and the like, however it re-opened for service late yesterday afternoon."

Meanwhile, while tremors were felt across the West Coast, there was no impact on the underground mine workings or surface facilities at the mine, the coal preparation plant, or the train loading facilities at Ikamatua. All mine site surface buildings and access roads, bridges and embankments have been checked and show no signs of damage.

(Sourced from Equity Bulls)