Harliwich closes Coal Creek mine; three jobs lost

THE Harliwich Holdings coal mine in Roxburgh has closed indefinitely, but the civil construction arm of the company is still going strong, Harliwich manager Tony Smith says.

Three fulltime jobs had been lost through the mine’s closure, but 15 were still employed by Harliwich for its civil construction work, Mr Smith said.

He did not know whether the coal mine would reopen, and said it was a ‘‘sad’’ thing for the Teviot district, but reassured people other Harliwich Holdings work continued as usual.

The coal mine had operated on its Coal Creek, Roxburgh site since 1906, the single excavation pit now covering about 2ha, Mr Smith said.

Harliwich’s recent mining turnover had been about $1 million a year, mining about 10,000 tonnes of coal annually, he said.

Mr Smith said the closure of the mine late last year was caused by resource consent issues that arose because of boundary adjustments.

A report was tabled at last week’s Central Otago District Council (CODC) meeting about procedural matters relating to the realignment and reinstatement of Coal Creek Rd, near the Harliwich mine.

Council executive manager infrastructure services Julie Muir said the coal mining had undermined the road and cau sed it to slump into the pit, in 2013.

The mining had also trespassed into a road reserve, and the council had temporarily closed the road and requested all mining activities adversely affecting the stability of the land with the road reserve boundary to cease.

This affected access for several nearby landowners, although they did have alternative access, Ms Muir said.

The Otago Daily Times also reported in 2013 that six houses near the coalmine were moving, at a rate of about 15cm a year.

At the time, then CODC infrastructure services manager Jon Kingsford said there was ‘‘pretty complex geology’’ and ‘‘weak soils’’ in the Coal Creek area, but it seemed mining operations were the cause of a slip on Coal Creek Rd.

Ms Muir said the road was realigned and started operating again in mid2017 and, under the Public Works Act, Harliwich Holdings had to pay for the work.

Mr Smith said the project, worth about $100,000, was done by Harliwich staff.

The coal mine had been operating again after the road issues were resolved, but late last year the council again ordered mining to stop, he said.

He said a ‘‘land swap’’ had taken place when resolving the road issues — ‘‘we gave the council some land and they gave us some land’’.

But a council staff member then said, because of boundary changes, Harliwich Holdings did not have resource consent to operate on a new area of land, and issued the company with a prohibition notice to stop mining, Mr Smith said.

He said the area around the Roxburgh mine had ‘‘always been unstable’’, and did not think the mine had caused all the slumping and instability that had occurred in the area.

As well as coal, the Harliwich mine had also produced humates that were used by farmers as a natural fertiliser.