Trading in Bathurst shares halted

WELLINGTON Feb 13 AAP - West Coast coking coal miner Bathurst Resources expects to have to wait until September for an environmental court appeal against consents granted for its Escarpment open cut mine.

Trading in Bathurst shares was halted in Australia and New Zealand on Monday, pending the outcome of a pre-trial judicial conference to establish a timetable for the appeals on consents that were granted by West Coast local authorities last August.

The dual-listed shares fell 3.9 per cent to NZ$1 on the NZX and dropped 5.7 per cent to 74.5 Australian cents on the ASX once the halt was lifted.

Bathurst managing director Hamish Bohannan said last week that New Zealand's consenting process was proving protracted, compared with the Australian regime, and the system created opportunities for opponents to "intentionally delay" projects.

However, in a statement on Monday he said the company hoped to hold substantive hearings in the September quarter, and that "the environment court is clearly giving the matter an appropriate level of urgency, which is very encouraging".

Bathurst said the environment court would hear declarations relating to climate change aspects of the project in March, with another pre-trial conference to set dates for substantive appeal issues shortly after that.

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