Bathurst quadruples activity
ASXLISTED coal miner Bathurst Resources has more than quadrupled both its New Zealand coal output and also job numbers, and booked an underlying profit of $43.4 million.
Bathurst’s rising fortunes are down to the jointventure BT Mining, between itself and Talley’s Fisheries, buying the former Solid Energy mines of Stockton, and in the Waikato, Rotowaro and Maramarua mines.
Bathurst chairman Toko Kapea said at the company’s annual meeting yesterday that through the three new BT Mining joint venture operations Bathurst was now the country’s leading coal producer.
‘‘This saw the number of employees and coal production that we manage more than quadruple from a year ago,’’ he said in an ASX market update.
Coal sales for the year went to 73% steelmaking, 20% food production and other industries and 7% to electricity generation. About 1.5 million tonnes of coal was produced for the year. That was made up from 1 million tonnes exported from Stockton on the West Coast, 800,000 tonnes in the North island was used domestically and 400,000 tonnes was similarly produced in the South Island.
Employee numbers from the previous financial year rose by a considerable margin, from 95 to 431.
Because of a pending court appeal, expected to begin in March next year, Bathurst will not pay a dividend this year, the cash being held in reserve in case a claim against it in the courts for $US40 million ($NZ60.4 million) is successful.
Bathurst is appealing an ‘‘adverse judgement’’ from the High Court which would require it to pay the $US40 million to L&M Coal Holdings Ltd, which sold Bathurst its coal mining permits in the Buller region in 2010.