Mine workers would keep jobs
WESTPORT: Stockton Mine workers will keep their jobs when the mine changes hands.
BT Mining, a joint venture between Bathurst Resources (65%) and Talley’s Fisheries (35%), is poised to take over on July 31, although the deal still needs Overseas Investment Office (OIO) approval.
Bathurst chief executive Richard Tacon yesterday said BT Mining would employ Solid Energy workers on individual contracts on the same terms and conditions as now.
Solid Energy would pay redundancy to workers on the collective contract, then BT Mining would offer them individual contracts, Mr Tacon said.
BT Mining had no problem with the E tu union’s plan to negotiate a collective contract.
Asked if BT Mining planned to lift production and jobs, Mr Tacon said: ‘‘Our plan is to operate the business so that we can be profitable at low coal price.’’
BT Mining did not want to be ramping up and down as the international coking coal price changed, he said.
Coal yesterday was $US147 a tonne. In the past year it has varied from $US91.50 to $US310 a tonne.
Bathurst put its Escarpment Mine, a stone’s throw from Stockton, into care and maintenance just over a year ago because its main customer, Holcim, was leaving Buller. Twenty workers lost their jobs.
Asked if that mine might reopen, Mr
Tacon said
Bathurst was continuing planning work around the
Denniston assets. With the purchase of the Sullivan coal mining licence to come, Bathurst was looking at the overall resource again.
OIO approval for the Stockton deal was expected next month, but was out of the company’s control, he said.
An OIO spokeswoman told the Westport News yesterday the application was still being assessed.
Solid Energy currently employs 222 workers at Stockton, of whom 176 are permanent fulltime. More than four times as many were employed before Solid Energy hit the skids five years ago.
Solid Energy chief executive Tony King confirmed it had begun consulting staff at Stockton and at Rotowaro and Maramarua in Waikato, in preparation for transferring the assets to BT Mining.
‘‘We understand that it is Bathurst’s intention that ‘there will be no net reduction in employment’ at the three sites,’’ which boded well for the West Coast and Waikato communities.
The sale of Reefton Mine to Moore Mining was also progressing. Spring Creek was the only Solid Energy mine that had not sold and its closure was under way.
E tu union organiser Garth Elliott said the union was ‘‘comfortable’’ with BT Mining’s plans. He understood the pay rates for mine workers would be unchanged.
E tu would be negotiating a collective contract for its 130 or so members at Stockton.
Mr Elliott said BT Mining wanted to lift mine production from the current 1 million tonnes a year to about 1.5 million tonnes. He expected more coal would mean more jobs.
A mine worker, who declined to be named, said workers were pleased with the proposals.
Buller Mayor Garry Howard said the district finally had some certainty over the mine.
‘‘I’m really pleased to see the takeover happening and the process they’re going through. It’s just been a little bit slower than what everybody would like.’’
The Stockton deal would also give certainty to industries looking to invest in Buller. He would not elaborate.
BT Mining announced last October it had agreed to pay $46 million for Stockton, Rotowaro and Maramarua, plus a contingent payment determined by Stockton coal sales.
The deal will create New Zealand’s largest specialist coal mining company. — NZME