Josie Vidal: Straterra CEO on the economic growth mining can bring to New Zealand

The government has hinted at a "major" mining announcement next week, and the sector is welcoming a push for mining to play a bigger role in the country's economic growth. 

This comes after Prime Minister Christopher Luxon defended the decision to expand mining, saying it needed to play a bigger role in the economy. 

CEO of Straterra inc. Josie Vidal joins the show to discuss what could be coming next week. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's what's down work for the major calls and how
will it affect the economy? The big business questions on
the Business Hour with an Edward Dickins. News talks have been.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Well, that was good timing. Welcome back, loving to have
you here. The first set is over Australian Open. It's
taken its what an hour and fifteen minutes and they're
hagging like it's the end of the game. What's happening here?
What's happening here? As is Djokovic quitting? Okay, so SEVEREV

(00:37):
just took out the tie break seventy five and then
they're just embraced and Djokovic is actually packing up his
bags and it appears as though he has forfeited and
retired from the game. While I was talking, while I
was watching, Saverev looked shocked. Saverev shocked as well, You sir,

(01:02):
are finally in the final of a major. Congratulations. But
we'll find out more about what actually happened to Novak
but later on. It's been a hell of a set.
It wasn't as though he was physically struggling, but he's
waving goodbye to the Australian Open crowd as we speak,
and walking off after one set, which he lost by
a millimeter. What a great player, Novak Djokovic. Okay, So

(01:25):
welcome back to the program. Such excitement news as it breaks.
It is eight minutes after six and Imandrew dickets. So
the mining sector is welcoming a push for mining to
play a bigger role in the country's economic growth. Resource
Minister Shane Jones has hinted it changes to where we
can mine, saying we can expect a major announcement next week.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
We need to get over ourselves because if we want
the surplus income and the revenue, we should identify which
areas are really precious to the birthright of quis and
which areas can be used for economic purposes, including mine.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
He mentioned stewardship I mentioned before the news what is
stewardship land? Is it conservation land? And Texas have said
stewardship land is the land a region has gifted to DOC.
So essentially it's private ratepayers land that is in transition
and is being under the stewardship of public entities. But

(02:18):
he's saying we should do this, but we'll know more
next week. Josey Vidal is the chief executive officer of
Straterra now that is the association representing the mining sector.
And welcome to the program, Josie.

Speaker 4 (02:31):
Thank you very much. I'm a little bit thrown by
what you just said about Jocobit so because I'm a
big fan.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Aren't we all. He's the goat. He's the goat, and
there was no clue and something that happened. Look, you
must be pretty happy, not at what happened in Novak,
but what has happened since Christopher luxon State of the
Nation speech and what Shane was saying this morning.

Speaker 4 (02:54):
Yeah, and Minister Shane Jones has been a real champion
for the industry. You know, he gets it, he under
stands it, and he's listened to us, which is good
to have. And the Prime Minister is a businessman and
pragmatic and he understands that mining is a productive part
of the economy and it can contribute more to economic growth. So,

(03:16):
you know, loosening a bit of the red tape and
enabling some overseas investment and showing some optimism towards mining
is going to help with economic growth.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I don't think anybody doesn't understand the fact that mining
can help. It's just that they're quite prepared to forego
the money because they love our landscape.

Speaker 4 (03:35):
Yeah, and there's a lot of misinformation about what mining
does and doesn't do. And obviously, you know, we won't
have time to go into the whole inf and outs
of Stewardship Land. But there's a lot of belief that,
you know, somehow mining is taking over the conservation of state.
That's not true. And there won't be mining in the
pristine National Parks or any of the parts of the

(03:56):
conservation of state that are important to New Zealanders. That
just happening. So it's a bit of misinformation around some
of that stuff.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Well, I'm getting it down in the Commander where they
say the Commandal Forest Park might be affected, in that
there are licenses already granted or at least interest licenses
of interest already granted to Australian companies.

Speaker 4 (04:16):
Yeah, and Minister Jones is doing his big announcement about
mining next week in why he and there's a reason
for that because in that Hiraki region mining contributes nineteen
point three percent towards GDP. People in that area understand
the value of mining. A lot of them work in mining.
They see the money from mining going into their communities.
It doesn't really matter where the company's owned, because a

(04:39):
lot of companies owned in New Zealand, not just mining
companies by overseas interests, it's the people working in those companies.
They work in New Zealand. They're not like Australian miners.
They don't fly and fly out. They live there, their
kids go to school there, they contribute to the community.
Mining's are really highly paid job and so there's plenty

(05:00):
of money going into those communities.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
What should we be looking for? Should we be looking
for hydrocarbons, or should we be looking for precious beat
or should we be looking for coal? Should we be
looking for rare earth minerals or should we just be
looking for everything?

Speaker 4 (05:15):
So we should be looking for what the world wants,
and the world does want a lot of the minerals
that are going into technology and energy, so some of
the lithe and cobalt, copper, that sort of thing. But
then there's also the rare earth elements and some of
the minerals that we do have here, so we're already

(05:36):
mining some of them. Primarily we mind gold and coal,
and it's worth noting that gold, the gold price is very,
very high, and in the last year it's gone up
over fifteen hundred dollars an ounce in New Zealand. And
there's a reason for that because it's money. It's safe
money when there's chaos in the world. So we have gold,

(06:00):
we have and the minister's announcement will be where there's
gold mined. And you know, don't overlook gold is important
in the mineral's story going forward.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
How does the rest of the world react when a
government backs our mining industry versus when a government puts
the kibosh on it.

Speaker 4 (06:19):
Well, this is so fascinating because this is my daily
bread and I get calls from lawmakers in other countries
and I've met with some from other countries as well,
and also from investors in other countries, and they're very
excited about the pass tracked legislation. I think we'll see
some companies can some countries follow that, And you know,

(06:40):
obviously if the government's backing an industry is attractive to investors.
There is actually a global scale that shows how countries
policy and laws make mining investment attractib or not. We'd
dropped to the bottom of that scale, but we're moving
back up it, which is really encouraging.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Well, we can't wait for once again happened next week.
Joseph Vidal from SWATIRA, Chief executive officer. You might want
to hang on the line and have a listen because
I've got some tennis news for you. So okay, well yeah, okay,
so here we go.

Speaker 4 (07:11):
Thanks to your time.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
It's a pleasure. So Novak Djokovic pulled out after the
first test in the Australian Open semi final, so of
course the first interview goes to Alexander Zeverev and here's
what he had to say just moments ago.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Now, the very first thing I want to say is,
please you guys, don't don't boo a player when he
goes out with injury. Yes, I know, I know that
everybody paid for tickets and everybody wants to see hopefully

(07:45):
a great five said match and everything, but you've got
to understand, Novak Djokovic is somebody that has given the
sport for the past twenty years, absolutely everything of his life.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
And he.

Speaker 5 (08:02):
Has won this turn with an abdominal tear. He has
won this turn with a hamstring tear. If he cannot
continue a tennis match, it really means that he cannot
continue a tennis match, so please be respectful and really
showed some love for Novak as well.

Speaker 2 (08:17):
What a classy thing to do. Alexander Zverev, who was
sweating like a pig, has been working hard airs. He
was as shocked as anybody and he knew exactly the
right thing to say. How unclassy from the Australian Open crowd.
Who has booed the goat? Unbelievable.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
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