Richard Tacon: BT Mining chief executive on the company's new deal with Genesis Energy

Genesis Energy has struck a two-year deal with New Zealand mining company BT Mining to supply 240,000 tonnes of coal to its Huntly Power Station.

The deal equates to BT Mining providing 10,000 tonnes of coal a month to Huntly, which supports the hydro-dominated electricity system.

BT Mining chief executive Richard Tacon explained how this deal will boost the local economy.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
More coal on the way for Hanley Powers Station, but
not of the Indonesian variety. Genesis Energy is locked in
a deal to purchase two hundred and forty thousand tons
of local coal to keep the lights on there. The
move designed to show up energy security, cutting reliance on
overseas imports of Richard take On is the BT Mining
CEO with us and on the phone, Richard, good evening, okaday,

(00:22):
Ryan there, Nice to have you with me. First of all,
this deal, how significant is it?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Oh, this is fantastic. We've got Hartley coal going into
the Hartley Power Station. It's been probably a decade since
there's been a like a long term supply like this.
So we've got one hundred and twenty thousand tons a
year for the next two years. That'll displace about half
of what they're importing now on a normal year. Obviously,
you know in certain years of US dry than I

(00:51):
need more. But yeah, it's significant for us and the
significant for the Hartley district.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
How why did we need to go to Indonesia in
the first place.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Look, it's got to do with the downsizing the mines
over the last couple of decades, and you know the
coal then really ended up in the making steel New
Zealand Steel Plant public Glenbrook. There was no excess coal
and also you know, for the for Genesis, they didn't
really know how much coal they were going to burn,
so it's hard for them to enter into a long

(01:24):
term supply contract that US as a producer needs, whereas
they can go and get coal from Indonesia and a
boat load, you know, with a with a manch Notice.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
So where are you getting this coal from?

Speaker 2 (01:36):
This is coming from the road to Warra Mine just
in Huntley itself, just out of Huntley. So it's Look,
it's part of a long term infrastructure that was set
up as part of the power station. Originally there's an
internal hall road. It then goes onto a conveyor which
feeds directly into the power station.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
And what were you going to do with this coal
had it not gone to Huntley?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
Do you know what?

Speaker 1 (01:56):
You know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yep, yep, No, Look at it would eventually sold to
New Zealand Steel. You know, if that plant continues using
coal in the same way they have. But you know
there's a lot of coal left in the Huntley area.
We've got a plan for an extension that's actually listed
in fast Track and we wint a customer for that coal.
So we see this as being a really good supply

(02:20):
for the next two years, but also it may lead
to other coal supply being able to be brought on.

Speaker 1 (02:26):
And is the with the fast track situation, is there
any indication of for you guys know whether you are
approved where you're along with that process. We're hearing a
lot about sort of delays ironically on the fast Track.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Look, we haven't got an application and yet we've got
two projects listed. We've got the Dennison Buller project down
on the West coast and we've got the Rhodawara Extension
project up in the Hutley area. So we're working on
applications for both of those that we haven't presented them
to the EPA yet.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
All right, fair enough about the two year contract term
for this Hunting power station, Is there not much more
than that to go around or what's with the term?

Speaker 2 (03:10):
No, it really just takes us through. That's some exous
coal that we believe, well, we know we've got in
this block we're mining now. There may be a little
bit more to go past that, but we wanted to
be able to be sure we can supply it, so
that's why we've both parties are very happy with a
two year deal.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
All right, interesting stuff, Richard, appreciate your time, Thanks so
much for it. To take on the taken, I should say,
who's the BT Mining chief executive of it?

Speaker 2 (03:34):
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