New company to administer $11m West Coast coal and gold minerals research

Thursday, 12 April 2018

A new company has been set up to administer $11m of funding for West Coast minerals research.

Directors have been appointed to a new company that will administer $11 million of government funding for minerals research on the West Coast.

The funding was announced in July 2017 under former National Government Science and Innovation Minister Paul Goldsmith, and continues under the new Labour-led Government.

Clare McGowan is one of seven new directors at Gremouth-based Institute for Minerals to Materials Research.

The Greymouth-based company receiving the money - New Zealand Institute for Minerals to Materials Research - has just been registered in the Companies Office and directors appointed after recruitment company Brannigans advertised for them.

One of the seven new directors is Dr Claire McGowan whose appointment to Christchurch's Science Alive raised eyebrows because it followed the collapse of her private consulting firm in 2016 owing $172,338.

Richard Tacon, chief executive of mining company Bathurst, is one of 10 trustees of a West Coast minerals group allocated $11m in government funding.

Taylor Coal manager Glenys Perkins who a trustee of Minerals West Coast.

* Shane Jones says ending oil and gas exploration is the 'only scenario'

* West Coast leaders worry Government's proposed mining ban will hurt jobs

* Land information minister rejects sale of Buller mine**

Other directors include Craig Richardson of Auckland on several boards including Wynyard Group (in liquidation), Derek Charge a former director of Taharoa Ironsands, Colin Dawson with directorships on startups and government quangos, Australian-based Julian Fairfield, and Kokatahi-based Raelyn Lourie (chairwoman).

The sole shareholder of the company is Minerals West Coast Trust. Spokesman Peter O'Sullivan said the hunt was on for a chief executive of the new company and a field day was planned to introduce directors to the West Coast mining industry.

The $11m will be allocated over four years, pending certain benchmarks, O'Sullivan said.

The company would foster research including purifying minerals used in magnets and lasers, extracting tungsten from gold mining waste, and developing a carbon foam pilot plant.

Minerals West Coast Trust is made up of representatives of Blakely Mining, Commercial Gold Miners Association & Amalgamated Mining, Oceana Gold, Bathurst Resources, and Taylor Coal.

Their registered charitable trust was set up in 2005 'to promote and assist the West Coast minerals industry to continue to provide economic, social and environmental benefits to the West Coast and it's communities while providing an attractive destination for new investment'.

The trust is also involved in lobbying governmental and council organisations - in 2016 it sought removal of several wetlands classified in a West Coast Regional Council plan change.

'In some cases this classification has the potential to adversely affect existing mining activities, including current and future investment and employment opportunities,' the trust said.

The aim of the trust was to reposition the mining sector to convert minerals into higher-value products.

It advocated for the extractives industry and developed a West Coast Minerals report adopted by the four West Coast councils.

The newly established Institute for Minerals to Materials Research was a successful applicant to the former Government's initiative called Regional Research Institutes.

The first $12.5m of funding under the Regional Research Institute programme went to the Institute of Viticulture and Oenology based in Marlborough.

Others recipients included $8.4m to Plantech, the New Zealand Institute for Technology and Innovation based in Tauranga, and $14.2m to The Centre for Space Science Technology in Alexandra to facilitate design, building and launching New Zealand's first fleet of cube satellites.