Wellington, Feb 26 NZPA - American regulators have approved an experimental North Dakota coal drying plant which has imported over 400 tonnes of New Zealand lignite to test in the hope the same process can be used in Southland.

Wellington Dec 7 NZPA - Coalminer Solid Energy is putting together a shipment of 500 tonnes of Southland lignite for commercial trials of a United States drying plant it hopes will remove enough water so the low-quality coal can be shipped back to New Zealand as briquettes.

Wellington, Sept 28 NZPA - A lignite-to-urea fertiliser plant which Government coal miner Solid Energy is considering for Southland would qualify for millions of dollars a year in taxpayer-subsidies of its carbon debt, according to a Wellington think tank.

Wellington, Sept 25 NZPA - State owned coal producer Solid Energy and fertiliser company Ravensdown are investigating the building of a lignite-to-urea plant in eastern Southland.

By Ian Llewellyn of NZPA Wellington, May 27 NZPA - Agriculture Minister David Carter has declared interests in eight companies working in the sector, the MPs' Register of Pecuniary Interests showed today.