Echo Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Download full dataset

Report an error

Sub-articles:

Global coal mines Coal mines in China Coal mines in India Coal mines in the United States Coal mines in Australia Coal mines in Russia Coal mines in Indonesia

Related-articles:

Largest coal mines in the world Coal mine impacts from Covid-19 Environmental issues of coal Coal mining Coal reserves Coal terminals

Echo Coal Mine is a mothballed coal mine in Reefton, West Coast, New Zealand.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Echo Coal Mine	Reefton, West Coast, New Zealand	-42.164326, 171.957271 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Loading map...

{"type":"SATELLITE","minzoom":false,"maxzoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","width":"600px","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"visitedicon":"","wmsoverlay":false,"zoom":16,"layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview","rotate"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"resizable":false,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"cluster":false,"clustergridsize":60,"clustermaxzoom":20,"clusterzoomonclick":true,"clusteraveragecenter":true,"clusterminsize":2,"imageoverlays":[],"kml":[],"gkml":[],"searchmarkers":"","fullscreen":false,"scrollwheelzoom":false,"locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":"","lat":-42.164326,"lon":171.957271,"icon":"","inlineLabel":"Mothballed Mine\n"}]}

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Mothballed	Care and Maintenance	1947	–

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
–	0.16	2023	Surface	Open Pit	2.31	60.0*	190*

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
–	–	–	Garvey Creek	Bituminous	Met	Lyttelton Port of Christchurch

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
Francis Mining Co Ltd [100%]	New Zealand Coal and Carbon Ltd	New Zealand

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ROM	0.02	0.07	0.06	0.06	0.06	0.11	–

Note: The above section was automatically generated and is based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2025 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

The Echo mine is an opencast bituminous coal mine southeast of Reefton on the West Coast of the South Island. The mine is owned by Francis Mining, a subsidiary of New Zealand Coal and Carbon (NZCC Limited). Francis Mining operates the 2.35 km² mine, which is owned by New Zealand Coal and Carbon. Francis Mining states that the tenement has more than 100 years of coal reserves. The opencast operation is continually being expanded and is in the planning phase for underground mine development, which will work a coal seam at considerable depth. Coal is extracted using “truck and shovel” methods, processed on site, then transported by road and rail. Doug Hood Mining described the work as being done, “mainly in difficult terrain with complex geology and underground workings … Coal folded and dipped over short distances making planning and recovery difficult.” Coal produced at this plant is trucked to the nearby Reefton railhead before being brought by rail 260 kilometres to the Port of Lyttelton, on the east coast at Christchurch . Primary overseas markets are coke and other carbon product producers including specialised silicon producers in Saudi Arabia, Canada and Australia.

• Operator: Francis Mining
• Owner: New Zealand Coal and Carbon
• Location: Reefton, West Coast, South Island, New Zealand
• Coordinates: -42.164326,171.957271 (Exact)
• Status: Operating
• Capacity: .07 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa)
• Total Reserves:
• Mineable Reserves:
• Coal Type: BITUMINOUS (Thermal)
  Solid fuel calorific value (gross) 30.87 MJ/kg (Range for NZ coal 15.25–31.95 MJ/kg
• Mine Type: SURFACE
• Start Year:
• Source of Financing:

Articles and Resources

Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.