New Zealand - West Coast - Coal Mining - Coal wagons and engine - Circa 1940’s? - Photo Postcard Format #t1173 Coal in NZ - New Zealand has 18 producing coal mines (October 2017) - These are all open cast mining operations, which in 2016 produced 2.9 million tonnes of coal, for domestic use and for export. - Coal is highly variable in quality and in its impurities from one mining operation to another. - An entire industry has grown around the purchase of coal from diverse sources; blending to client specifications; and transport, handling and support to individual users. - Coal is New Zealand's most abundant known energy resource, with an estimated 15 billion tonnes to which there is ready access - 80 per cent of this is brown coal or lignite. Link to lignite article. - Coal has played a key role in the development of modern New Zealand. - Coal's annual economic contribution to the country runs into many billions of dollars, thinking of steel, cement, food, wood and wool products, as examples of goods produced. (Reference; read more at https://www.letstalkaboutcoal.co.nz/coal-in-nz/)