The Buller district has vowed to fight to keep one of its biggest employers, the Holcim Cement works, in Westport.

The company is deciding whether to retain its 50-year-old Westport site, where it employs 130 people, or move to Oamaru.

Holcim is seeking resource consent to build a new cement plant in the North Otago town, but Westport Mayor Martin Sawyers says that does not mean a final decision has been made.

He says the council and the West Coast Development Trust will do all it can to keep the company in Buller.

He does not expect Holcim to make a final decision for two years.