Rosemary Penwarden has been researching and campaigning against new fossil fuel developments since her grandson was born in 2011. She is currently a supporter of Climate Liberation Aotearoa.

The exploitation of nature is as old as humanity. The story of New Zealand's biggest coal company Bathurst Resources is a contemporary example of an age-old pattern. However, whereas in the past environmental destruction was a by-product of survival, today it is nothing of the sort. Today's coal mining exists to profit the already wealthy, a consequence of the neoliberal capitalist economic apparatus that, if we are to take climate science seriously, is killing us and must be dismantled.

No one will starve when Bathurst Resources (aka BRL, or Bathurst) stops mining coal. And New Zealanders will get to keep one of our most precious and stunning landscapes, the long fought-over Denniston Plateau. This company, which already owns and operates the Stockton Mine, and has consent to mine the Escarpment Mine further down the Buller Plateau on the West Coast, is gearing up to apply for fast-track consent for a mega mine right down the whole of the Buller Plateau.

Fonterra Is Biggest Customer

In this article we bring you the true story of Australian company Bathurst Resources Ltd in Aotearoa New Zealand, the one you won't find on its Website. Bathurst had never mined an ounce of coal before opening its New Zealand office at Number One Willeston Street Wellington in March 2012. Prime Minister of the day, John Key, was there. So was a noisy crowd of around 100 protestors to unwelcome the company. A new coal company in 2012 was a step in the wrong direction. Anyone who understood the climate science knew it.

Bathurst went on to scoop up much of what was left after State-owned coal company Solid Energy dissolved in the following years into an embarrassing mess of job losses, unpaid bills and broken promises intimately connected to the Key government's long term privatisation agenda. Office opening day protests could have been a warning for Bathurst. Its listing on the NZX lasted only a couple of years before it quietly stopped calling itself a New Zealand company in 2013 and moved to the Australian Exchange, where the stock price bounced and skidded along the bottom of the graph, reaching as low as 12 cents per share in June 2016.

Bathurst's biggest New Zealand customer and this country's year-on-year winner for the prize of biggest polluter, Fonterra, burns thermal coal in many of its boilers to dry milk for export. Bathurst provided the coal for these monster boilers after purchasing the South Island thermal coal mines of Takitimu in Nightcaps in 2011 and the Canterbury Coal mine near Glentunnel in 2013. These mines, often with fixed contracts which Fonterra seemed happy to pay, kept the coal company afloat.

Stockton Mine

But Bathurst believed its real treasure was the coking coal of the Buller Plateau, beginning with the working Stockton Mine near Westport. The once irreplaceable Happy Valley, site of the legendary three-year occupation led by student activists, beginning in 2004, had been renamed Cyprus, desecrated and added to the growing Mordor-like disaster scene. In 2016 Bathurst entered into a joint venture (JV) with Nelson-based fishing company Talley's Group, quietly picked through the Solid Energy leftovers and bought three mines, Rotowaru and Maramarua in the North Island, and the prized coking coal mine of Stockton, on the Buller Plateau, almost all of which is exported.

These mines became 65%/35% Bathurst/Talley's owned. The original name of the JV was Phoenix Coal (aah, the phoenix arising from the flames of Solid Energy to fly, fly again!) Luckily the coal PR people spotted the utter tackiness early enough for that name to be dropped in favour of the unoriginal, less noticeable therefore more appropriate BT Mining. Then the price of coking coal tanked. But there were more hurdles than the low coal price to jump over before Bathurst's largely overseas shareholders would see Stockton's adjacent coalfields, including the Denniston Plateau, mined in exchange for some nice fat export dollars.

In 2010, before Bathurst had even "come out" as a coal company in Aotearoa, it purchased the Escarpment/Denniston mine site from L&M Mining for $US40 million. A clause in the contract of purchase stated that a further $US40 million was to be paid to L&M once the first 25,000 tonnes of coal had been exported from the Plateau, and a final $US40 million paid once one million tonnes were sent to export.

That $US80 million (or $NZ130 million) has never been paid in ten years of court battles with L&M. During that time another battle was being fought, this one between Bathurst and environmental campaigners Forest and Bird, Coal Action Network Aotearoa, West Coast Environment Network and others, determined to save the Denniston Plateau from destruction. Bathurst finally won consent to mine in 2014, scraped the coal off one corner of the escarpment section of the plateau, and then in 2016 stopped short of taking the first 25,000 tonnes, largely due to that low coal price.

Easter 2025 Protest

That scraped-off corner of the escarpment became the site of a five-day occupation by 70 New Zealanders at Easter 2025 as part of the next chapter in the fight to save the Denniston Plateau. Three months later Climate Liberation Aotearoa's Rach Andrews and Tāmati Taptiklis climbed into an 80m high aerial coal bucket that transports coal off the Stockton mine down to the Granity railhead, and stayed there for three weeks. Despite "hostile" tactics from company contractors like firing gunshots (bird scarers), shaking the cable, flying helicopters and drones nearby and blaring ear-piercing 24-hour alarms, Rach and Tāmati stopped coal being moved off Stockton for three weeks and cost Bathurst around $27,000 a day.

The opposition to mine Denniston will continue. Meanwhile Bathurst now faces another hurdle. As if ten years of court battles with L&M wasn't enough, it is now in a legal stoush with its very own JV partner, Talley's. Bathurst needs money for further development of Denniston and for the development of two new Canadian coal prospects it has its eye on. Its 65% share of $192 million in retained earnings would be the appropriate development cash pot - only Talley's has vetoed it.

Why the veto? Talley's launched court action just before Christmas 2024 alleging Companies Act breaches relating to earlier capital-raisings and "certain payments" to directors. Details are suppressed by court order. It may be another two years, or never, before we hear more. Bathurst CEO Richard Tacon told me of the $192 million cash pot - in an aside during a Climate Liberation Aotearoa-organised panel discussion in Westport in June 2025. He rebuffed my claim that Bathurst money was going to mainly overseas shareholders. No, no, he said, $192 million is right here in New Zealand. He failed to mention that it was sitting there because his partner Talley's wasn't letting him get his hands on it.

Bathurst Closes Canterbury Coal Mine

An informative insight as to how Bathurst behaves when it starts mining is the company's infringements at its Canterbury Coal mine. Canterbury Coal Ltd had a ready market up the road at Fonterra's Darfield factory which burned coal to dry milk for export. By 2017 Canterbury Coal had clocked up 27 infringement notices, been fined $20,250 for unauthorised sediment runoff into the nearby Waianiwaniwa River, and fined again, this time a further $18,000 for breaching runoff consents - after allowing sediment-laden water into the Bush Gully Stream in 2018: too much mud, even for the local endangered Canterbury mudfish.

None of these infringements seemed to matter to the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) however which, in 2019, granted Bathurst permission to buy adjacent land and extend the mine. Forest and Bird challenged the OIO's decision, arguing the permission to extend the mine should be revoked, but the OIO did not budge. Bathurst then made a formal application to Environment Canterbury (ECan, the regional council) to extend the mine. During her investigations to inform that consent, a Selwyn District Council planner provided a litany of evidence of bad company behaviour.

It turns out that Bathurst had been taking around five times the amount of coal it had consent for. Which meant that, on top of the runoff and other breaches, it had also breached all its other consents relating to noise, traffic, dust, light and sound. The council decided that Bathurst would apply for retroactive consent for these breaches. But not only did Bathurst refuse to provide ECan with information it requested, the company also challenged ECan's assessment of the situation.

On 28 September 2020 a large group of Extinction Rebellion climate activists braved the freezing Canterbury wind and closed the mine for a day "For Climate Repairs" and Bathurst's dirty transgressions were aired for the general public to see. Ultimately, Bathurst chose to avoid what would likely be lengthy legal battles with ECan, and not long after the protest, in early 2021, Bathurst closed the gates of Canterbury Coal Ltd for good.

But it didn't end there. ECan and the Selywn District Council rejected the company's rehabilitation plan after a detailed hearing, where they listed grave concerns for the rehabilitation of the local wetlands, and the removal of contaminated deposits. True to form, Bathurst appealed this 2022 decision to the High Court. The issue has not yet been resolved: Bathurst and ECan - and other parties - have been in mediation ever since.

Despite this, Canterbury Coal went ahead and undertook its own rehabilitation and even managed to become a finalist in the 2022 Mineral Sector Awards for its "proactive and predictive approach to identify and minimise acid and metalliferous drainage and improve water quality since acquiring the Canterbury Coal Mine in 2013". This is the kind of behaviour we can expect from Bathurst at other mines: it appears to have little to no regard for consent conditions, nor the councils monitoring those consents. To point blank refuse to provide detailed information to a council when requested is astounding. The arrogance is breathtaking.

The Buller Plateau And Denniston

Now, back to Bathurst's "real" treasure, the Buller Plateau coking coal. Under the Government's new fast-track legislation Bathurst's plan is to mine 20 million tonnes of coal around Denniston and the wider Buller Plateau, a footprint of destruction covering 144 hectares, bigger than 1700 rugby fields, to generate at least 53 million tonnes of emissions; shockingly close to New Zealand's entire annual net emissions of 59 million tonnes. This Buller Plateaux Continuation project is planned to continue all the way to 2050.

If you're wondering just when Bathurst might finally get its hands on Denniston coal - we say never, but Business Desk's Pattrick Smellie is worth quoting: "Given the history to date, it is tempting to speculate on just how long the overlapping tangle of legal wrangling could last. After all, if L+M were to take the view that interest was owed on those $US80m of performance payments, both dating from the mid-2010s, the legal bonanza could conceivably last as long as there's coking coal still to be mined from the Buller Plateau". Bathurst is on the hook for yet another payment if it ever mines the Escarpment - a $22m compensation package, decided in 2013 during Nick Smith's period as Minister of Conservation, still owed to the Department of Conservation for the adverse effects of the mining.

Coal Belongs In The History Books

We all know about coal's place in New Zealand history. The New Zealand labour movement owes much to the West Coast miners. As a union worker my entire life I see in the Coast's history plenty of stories to be proud of and others that make me ashamed to be a New Zealander. Still playing out is the Pike River debacle, a story of courage in the face of corporate profit-driven incompetence amid lax government and safety oversight. That story is not over. Justice has not been served. Read Rebecca Macfie's book "Tragedy At Pike River" and go and see the film "Pike River".

The Coast's Knight In Shining Armour. Not.

Right now, Bathurst is trying to paint itself as the Coast's next knight in shining armour. At a Westport panel discussion in June 2025, Climate Liberation Aotearoa invited locals to discuss the future of the Denniston Plateau. Around 100 gathered, about two thirds of them coal miners and their partners. One third were locals who'd had a guts full of coal and extractive industries. After the panelists spoke we broke into smaller groups to discuss what next, after coal. Funny how, when you sit around together you realise that we all want the same things. Coal miners don't actually want to destroy stuff. They just want to be able to pay the mortgage and put food on the table for their kids. Us greenies want that too.

Stockton workers do not have redundancy clauses in their contract. Their CEO is not willing to give them even this basic worker's right, least of all to assist them into non-exploitative jobs once coal mining ends. CEO Richard Tacon admits there are just three years left of mining at Stockton. That's three years to plan and implement a fair transition for workers and the winding down of an unnecessary, far-from-market fragment of the coking coal industry.

Minister for Resources Shane Jones, in lock step with Tacon, thinks the world needs more coking coal to make steel. But the steel industry itself, globally, is under pressure to reduce emissions. Bathurst's fast-track plan risks becoming a stranded asset well before its 2050 expiry date. The iron and steel industries account for11% of global carbon emissions and79% of global greenhouse gas emissions - more than the emissions from all the world's cars. If we factored in methane from the metallurgical coal mining sector, the steel industry's carbon footprint could be increased by up to 27%.

While most steelmaking still relies on coal-based blast furnaces, that is changing. Global Energy Monitor's annual "Pedal To The Metal" report revealed in 2024 that 93% of new steelmaking capacity promises to use lower emission electric arc furnaces (EAFs). There are examples of fossil-free steel, for example HYBRIT, a Swedish initiative to produce fossil-free steel by replacing coal and coke with fossil-free hydrogen and electricity.

Steel is 100% recyclable. Around 40% of today's steel is made from recycled or scrap steel and that percentage can be ramped up. In many instances steel can be replaced. Pre-stressed laminated timber building frames of up to six stories, developed at Canterbury University, could replace steel in buildings. Imagine if the Government and Councils of the day had rebuilt earthquake-damaged Christchurch with this home-grown technology. Timber buildings then become a store of carbon rather than a source of emissions.

How long have we been fighting for sane Government decisions that might preserve what's left of these most special places, like the Denniston Plateau, to the next generation? How long do we wait for the likes of Shane Jones to see sense, not only about coking coal but about the climate crisis? The answer is - we don't. We fight. And that next generation? They're here and unafraid to get in the way of this insane destruction. Growing numbers of young and old, with diverse expertise and no lack of determination are lining up to fight the bullshit.

Contributing To Global Warming Mega-Deaths

In 2021 an article appeared in the highly regarded scientific journal Nature Communications named "The Mortality Cost Of Carbon". Its author, American climate scientist Daniel Bressler, essentially predicts that for every 4,434 metric tons of carbon dioxide released anywhere in the world between 2020 and 2100, someone will die. This projection refers to death from excess heat only and does not take into account those who will die from other climate related causes such as air pollution, flooding and fires. Using this calculation almost 12,000 people are destined to die due to emissions from Bathurst's planned Buller mines. In January 2025 the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries (IFoA) noted the likely halving of global gross domestic product (GDP) and four billion deaths, if temperature increase is not kept below three degrees by 2050. This climate shit is real.

New Zealand has a proud history of nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience to draw on in our fight to stop coal mining. While this story is about Bathurst, its' part of the bigger story of how corporations continue to operate in the midst of climate breakdown. Continual economic growth is incompatible with a survivable future. Environmental destruction was once a by-product of survival; today, our survival depends on ending the environmental destruction coal mining wreaks. Bathurst will battle on in the mines and in the courts until we stop it. What is the true cost of that first ounce of coal?

New Zealand has a whole range of coal types, from lowest grade lignite to the highest quality bituminous coal found on the West Coast. Our bituminous coal (also referred to as metallurgical or coking coal) is all exported to Japan, South Korea, China and India for steelmaking. The sub-bituminous coal and lignite, used mainly in industrial boilers (or a few short years ago regularly used to heat schools, greenhouses and homes), is referred to as thermal coal - biggest customer Fonterra, Aotearoa's star polluter.

Acknowledgement

I'd like to acknowledge the research of Coal Action Network, particularly Cindy Baxter, Extinction Rebellion Ōtautahi, and Business Desk journalist Pattrick Smellie, whose July 2025 three part series on Bathurst Resources provided important details for this story.

Call To Action

I'm betting if you're reading this you are already contributing skills to this fight for our survival. If you can, please help us save the Denniston Plateau. Forest and Bird, 350 Aotearoa, Coal Action Network Aotearoa and others are working alongside Climate Liberation Aotearoa. Regular donations to either or all of these groups will link you in and keep you up with events.

Forest & Bird - Te Reo o te Taiao
350 Aotearoa
Coal Action Network Aotearoa (CANA)
Climate Liberation Aotearoa

Watchdog - 170 December 2025