Successful start to mining firm's shift of rare snails

The rare powelliphanta augustus snail.

Two hundred rare West Coast snails have been released back to the wild at Stockton open cast mine.

The snails and 182 snail eggs were released on Saturday 800m north of where they had been collected at Stockton mine's Mt Augustus ridgeline, near Westport.

Department of Conservation technical support officer Tim Shaw said the move had successfully tested the logistics of releasing large numbers.

"The idea was just to release the first 200 animals and make sure that went smoothly enough, and it did."

Nine staff took two hours to release the snails. DoC would now release up to 500 at one time.

"Once we get beyond 500 it all becomes a bit of a headache just to get people and snails and everything in the right place at the right time."

Solid Energy received ministerial permission last April to move a population of powelliphanta augustus snails from the ridgeline so it could mine up to $400 million worth of coal.

DoC plans to release a total of 1275 of the 2600 snails remaining in captivity over the coming weeks - depending on weather.

The first 20 were returned to the wild last month. They have been compared to another 20 snails moved from the ridgeline to a new site and a 20-strong control group which remains in its natural habitat on the ridgeline.

All are equipped with transponders so DoC can monitor them.

- NZPA