Pike River Coal’s second export shipment of approximately 20,000 tonnes of hard coking coal worth about $6m is scheduled to depart the Port of Lyttelton later today for India.

The shipment, departing about four weeks later than originally scheduled, will ease concerns expressed by analysts last month over Pike River’s high rate of cash burn.

Chief executive Gordon Ward said in a release today that shipment loading this weekend was kept to just one day later than planned, despite some damage to Lyttelton port infrastructure as a result of Canterbury’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake on Saturday morning.

The shipment will be dispatched to life-of-mine customer Gujarat NRE, who also received the mine’s first export shipment in February.

Mr Ward said that Pike River’s West Coast mining operations were not disrupted as a result of the earthquake.

The Midland rail-line suffered some track damage and required extensive inspections but re-opened for service yesterday afternoon.

Shares (NZX: PRC) rose by one cent this morning to $1.10.