Introduction
Bill McKibben’s current speaking tour has put divestment from fossil fuels firmly on the agenda in this country. CANA strongly supports this campaign, and naturally, our focus is on divestment from coal. This blog post is about the need to divest from one particular coal company: Bathurst Resources.
Bathurst Resources is an Australian mining company that is trying to relocate to New Zealand, primarily to undertake coal mining – although we understand that they also have gold mining interests on the West Coast. Their flagship project – at least, it would be their flagship project if they could ever get it started – is their plan to rip apart the beautiful and biodiverse Denniston Plateau on the West Coast for coal.
Bathurst’s ambition is to become a large coal mining company. And Bathurst has powerful friends. Prime Minister John Key turned up to open Bathurst’s Wellington office – and 260 anti-coal activists turned up to tell him why that was a really bad idea.
So, for all those reasons, Coal Action Network Aotearoa regards Bathurst Resources as an opponent we need to take seriously. Fortunately, if ironically, we have a powerful ally: Bathurst’s investors, who have become increasingly irked at Bathurst’s protracted failure to deliver them the promised returns: something which has been reflected in Bathurst’s falling share price.
Bathurst’s Mines and Plans
Note: This article makes use of the excellent information on the CoalSwarm Bathurst Resources page. Just as that’s the place to go for comprehensive information on Bathurst, we encourage you to use the New Zealand section of CoalSwarm as a source of information on the coal industry and their plans in Aotearoa.
Existing mines
Bathurst currently operates the Takitimu mine in Southland and the Cascade Mine at the foot of the Denniston Escarpment.
The beauty of the Denniston Plateau. Photo: Forest & Bird
Planned Denniston mine
Bathurst Resources has applied for resource consent to mine 6.1 million tonnes of coal (leading to around 8 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions) on the Denniston Plateau, an area of great beauty, high scientific interest and unique biodiversity.
The West Coast Environment Network and  Forest and Bird have mounted a series of legal challenges to Bathurst’s plans. At the time of writing, here’s how things stand:
The Environment Court has issued an interim decision granting consent for Bathurst (calling itself Buller Coal) to mine at Denniston, subject to stronger conditions. Opponents are refusing to negotiate on conditions as there are no conditions that would make it OK to destroy this exceptional area of beauty and biodiversity, or to continue adding to climate change.
Forest and Bird and WCENT launched two separate appeals against the Environment Court’s decision. One was lost, but the other case is looking much more promising.
In addition, the Supreme Court is currently considering a separate case on whether climate change can be taken into account when considering an application for resource consent for a mine. If the Supreme Court decision is favourable the Environment Court will have to reconvene and hear climate change evidence on the Denniston mine.
And even if none of these decisions comes out in our favour, there are still other legal options available. Bathurst are a long way from getting their claws into Denniston!
We hope that the legal process will stop Bathurst’s Denniston plans in their tracks. But even if it doesn’t, the legal process has value: it buys time to build public opposition to and awareness of Bathurst’s plans, and it makes Bathurst’s shareholders even more unhappy than they already are.
Who Are Bathurst’s Shareholders?
That answer is constantly changing! Bathurst shares turn over rapidly, and so, the list of the leading shareholders changes from week to week. Here are the top 10 as of 6 June 2013:
| Merrill Lynch Factor Index Fund |
| JPMorgan (Taiwan) Global Natrl Res Ldrs |
| ILI JPM Natural Resources GBP |
| CC Asia Alpha Fund |
| FPIL JP Morgan Global Natural Resources |
| Vanguard Total Intl Stock Idx Fund |
| ZI JF 5 elements |
| TCW International Small Cap |
| LG Asian Natrl Resources Fd |
| DFA International Small Company Port |
If you have investment in any of these funds, call them and tell them it’s time to get out of Bathurst Resources!
We are continuing to analyse Bathurst’s sources of investment.
Time to Divest from Bathurst
As both Bill McKibben’s New Zealand tour and the recent Australian climate conferences make clear, campaigns to get investors to divest from fossil fuels, and in particular coal, are proving highly effective.
For small investors who are looking for short-term gains, Bathurst is proving a really, really bad investment – and with the proposed Denniston mine still tied up in multiple court cases, and the likelihood of direct action against the planned mine on top of that, Bathurst’s financial position isn’t going to improve any time soon.
For institutional investors who are looking for a long-term investment, the outlook is even worse. The growing ca
rbon bubble means that fossil fuels are the very opposite of a worthwhile long-term investment. Why put your money into a resource that will lose its value?
It’s time for investors to get out of Bathurst Resources. It’s time for Bathurst Resources to get out of Denniston. And it’s time for fossil fuels to be seen as what they are: a sunset industry on which the sun has already gone down.
PM John Key has shares in Merrill Lynch. That’d be a good start, forcing him to DIVEST. But he also has shares in the Bank of America who pretty much OWN Merrill Lynch (and probably JP Morgan as well). Do I detect some conflicts of interest for the PM? What media outlet can take him on? Is there one that ISN’T owned by the corporate finance giants?
thanks for that comment Brian. i’m keen to try and follow that one up.
“In its March 2012 newsletter, Bathurst Resources featured Salmon’s role in assisting the company with its controversial Buller Coal Project. “Let’s look at the two key environmental concerns about coal mining. The first is climate change. This development on the Buller Plateau is not about thermal coal that’s going to burn in power stations. There are many ways of generating electricity and, in my view, coal isn’t the best way. This coal is steelmaking coal and, at the moment, there is no substitute for coal’s role in steel making. So as long as the world needs pots and pans, at least for the foreseeable future, we need this type of coal,” Salmon stated” From elsewhere on this website
So with energy there is an alternative (as long as you are prepared to bare the burden of additional cost, but with Steel making it is coking coal or nothing. How do you respond to this Debs.
I seem to be missing half the argument, please enlighten me
ian
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Ian, I’m not quite sure whether I follow your argument, but if you think Guy Salmon is correct that we need steel to make coal, I suggest that you read this and think again: http://coalactionnetworkaotearoa.wordpress.com/2013/04/24/can-we-make-steel-without-coal/
Tim, it seems we both hope for a brighter future where technology spares us from the tough questions faced, But there is a casm between us and the future, a casm of time. I sincerely believe that we should forge ahead to a future envisaged by JF in her article but I am not convinced by a speculative and un quantified article such as this.
The economics of the steel making processes you put forward are at this stage not feasible on the scale the world requires. of course we could limit our demand, but the demand for steel is largely in the growing economies. Do you propose that we limit our supply so as to limit their demand. Look back into last century and see what that sought of limiting did to the world on a geo political level.
As world population surges towards 9 billion I understand all of your concerns, but the conjecture and guestimation you put forward as arguments are not answers in the here and now. They are encouragement to move forward to a better future, but what we need is proper management of our coal resources to most efficiently get to the future we both yearn for
The real answers we need are at an individual level, each of us dotted across the globe needs to assume responsibility for our own footprint we leave on this earth. but as we ride our bikes across pristine coastal tracks don’t bellieve for a minute that your reality is the same reality faced by a farmer in regional China or a Family struggling to eat in Greece or mid west USA.
It is a complicated world and your answers are not your neighbours