Rotowaro Mine. Huntly. New Zealand. - Mines on Waymarking.com

At Rotowaro coal is mined in an opencast mine. The deepest opencast mines in New Zealand are at Rotowaro.

Coal was first mined here in 1915 after a branch railway and a bridge were put over the Waikato River. The present opencast mine opened in 1958. The town of Rorowaro was built for miners houses, but was entirely removed in the 1980s to make way for a large opencast mine.

Rotowaro produces between 1.5 and 1.9 million tonnes a year (depending on demand from the power station), from different seams in the Awaroa 4 pit where production started in 2004.

Operations at Rotowaro are run 22 hours a day, seven days a week with 220 fulltime HWE Mining staff working around two shifts a day and another 50 contractors and 45 Solid Energy staff also involved in the operation.

The Awaroa Pit contained 11.4 million tonnes of coal and 130 million bcm of overburden. To extract around 1.8 million bcm of coal every year, 20 million bcm of overburden has to be removed. This is a deep mine, expected to reach 180 metres at its deepest point, and the coals seams are, on average, between two and five metres deep (and some up to 20 metres deep). It is economical to mine any seam more than 750mm thick.
Overburden from the Awaroa 4 pit is trucked to the adjacent Township pit as back-fill. Exhausted pits are filled with back-fill, contoured to fit the surrounding topography and replanted for future use as pasture or forestry. is trucked to the adjacent Township pit as back-fill. Exhausted pits are filled with back-fill, contoured to fit the surrounding topography and replanted for future use as pasture or forestry.

These days, the majority of Rotowaro’s coal (at least 70 percent) travels by truck and overland conveyor to the power station operated by Genesis Energy. Another 25 percent is sent by rail to New Zealand Steel’s Glenbrook Mill on Auckland’s Manukau Harbour. The rest of the coal is sold to the industry and home heating markets in the North Island.

Mine Type: Working Mine Mineral Collecting: No Material Mined: Coal, Lignite Operation: Opencast Mine Surface Features: Yes KNOWN DANGERS: No unauthorized entry to the mine site. Visit the office for any enquiries. 732. Rotowaro Road. Phone 07 828 2500. Workings can be viewed from the main road which passes through the coal mine area. Any associated website: [Web Link] Any Other information: Workings can be viewed from the main road which passes through the coal mine area. The road passes through a tunnel specially built to carry the Overburden from the Awaroa 4 pit to the adjacent Township pit as back-fill. It is interesting to drive through here.

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Optional photograph welcomed.

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Date Logged Log User Rating   02/21/2011 Punga and Paua visited it