The Electricity Commission last month stated the need to watch overseas developments before regulating smart meter installation in New Zealand, but this week's announcement that all UK households will have smart meters by 2020 was not welcomed by all industry players.

The UK’s Department for Energy and Climate Change’s £8 billion ($NZ18.3million) scheme is designed to see 47 million meters installed in 26 million properties by 2020.

A report on land under the Department of Conservation estate with significant mining potential could be months away.

Energy and resources minister Gerry Brownlee's stocktake of schedule 4 land was initially due by October 30.

But a spokesman said this morning the report, by DOC and the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), could be "a little while away."

"We won't receive it for a number of weeks and haven't finalised the process that would follow."

Solid Energy has finally received a big tick for its environmental management at Stockton Mine.

Concerns were first raised in 1988, when the first parliamentary commissioner for the environment Helen Hughes was concerned about the transferral of coal mining licences to Coal Corporation – a new state-owned enterprise, now Solid Energy.

An investigation was recommended in 2006 over concerns including acid mine drainage.