John Hawkins
30-07-14 Photo:---JOHN HAWKINS---/Fairfax NZ / Southland Times---- Coal Action Network Aotearoa member Jeanette Fitzsimons at Venture Southland ahead of a discussion about transition options for coal mining communities.
A West Coast family business plans to reopen two historic coal mines.
Birchfield Coal Mines Ltd has bought the Liverpool and Strongman mines from collapsed state mining company Solid Energy.
Birchfield Coal is owned by siblings Evan, Gary, Karen and Allan Birchfield. It employs about 20 people at its mine in the Giles Creek basin near Reefton. Gary and Allan Birchfield also own and operate gold and aggregate mines on the Coast.
Strongman mine during its short stint as an open cast mine in the early 2000s.
Director Allan Birchfield said he was "very pleased to secure the West Coast mines into local ownership".
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"The mines purchased are not currently operating and we intend to develop all these mines into production," he said.
Birchfield Coal Mines Ltd has bought the Liverpool and Strongman mines from collapsed state mining company Solid Energy.
The Liverpool mine opened in 1913.
The area purchased was called the Kimball Block adjacent to the old Liverpool 3 mine, which closed in 1984.
The original Strongman mine opened in 1938. An explosion in the underground mine in 1967 killed 19 miners. Open cast mining only operated at the mine for two years between 2001 and 2003.
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Allan Birchfield is expanding his family West Coast mining operations.
Birchfield said he expected the company would employ "a few dozen" miners in the two mines.
He hoped the sale would be completed by February 2017.
"They are open cast mines so they just need to be opened up. We haven't put a timeframe on it. It depends on the market," he said.
Birchfield believed the coal price would stabilise. The price was US$260 (NZD$363) a tonne on Monday.
He was confident in the future of the coal mining industry in New Zealand.
"We believe that coal is a clean, efficient and economical energy source which is essential to keep our industries running.
"The original Birchfields coal company was started in 1977 by our parents. We are the second generation and the third generation are involved and ready to take the reins when the time comes. We are in this for the long haul."
Solid Energy had been very good for the Coast, he said.
West Coast communities had "sorely missed" development and jobs since the decline of Solid Energy.
He hoped Birchfields and Phoenix Coal, which bought Stockton mine near Westport, would revive the region's coal industry.
Phoenix Coal, owned by Talley's and Bathurst Resources, also bought Rotowaro and Maramarua mines in the Waikato.
Union E tu's West Coast organiser Garth Elliott said it was very positive news smaller mines would continue under new ownership.
"It's a positive move forward compared with what the membership has had to deal with over the last few years. There's more security so that's good for them," he said.
E tu's director of industries Ged O'Connell said the mines appeared to have been "salvaged".
"It means jobs for our members and some pay-back for creditors, so that's good. It will also mean income flowing through local communities so it's positive news all round," he said.
"Birchfield is also well-known to us. They're long-time West Coast operators."
Coal Action Network Aotearoa spokeswoman Jeanette Fitzsimons said the coal industry should be phased out "with justice for workers".
"We are staggered that people like Talleys and Birchfields are investing in a sunset industry at this stage in history. Yes the coal price is high at the moment but it will go back down making coal mining uneconomical. Coal has had its day."
She said if new coal mines were opened New Zealand would have no hope of meeting its obligations under the Paris Agreement on climate change.
- Stuff
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