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.