58 | MINING Birchfield Energy & Resources Powering our essential services Richard Loader “The night we went into lockdown when I got a phone call from Wellington confirming we were an essential service because the industries we supplied were also essential services.” to page 60 Proudly supporting Birchfield Energy & Resources Ph: (03) 789 7609 | e: bulk@jbt.co.nz In the early days of New Zealand’s response to Covid-19 a light bulb moment occurred when the significance of South Island’s reliance on coal as a source of heat energy became apparent. Phil McKinnell, CEO of Birchfield Coal Mines Ltd (BCML), tells the golden story about an interesting conversation he had with a Wellington official prior to the March/April lockdown in 2020. “In those initial days of Covid no-one really knew what was going on. “A guy in Wellington called me and told me he didn’t think we were an essential service. I said, well you send me a letter saying that with your name on it and we will shut down, but you will have six hospitals cold tomorrow, nobody will be processing milk powder, and the freezing works will stop. “Strangely enough I never heard any more about it till 8.30pm the night we went into lockdown when I got a phone call from Wellington confirming we were an essential service because the industries we supplied were also essential services.” Without coal provided by BCML and other South Island coalminers, hospitals; schools; aged care and community facilities would all be cold. Freezing works would be without hot water, milk processors would be unable to dry milk for the export market and horticulturalists would be unable to operate. With origins dating back to the late ‘70s, BCML continues to be a family owed business with its three directors Evan, Karen and Gary Birchfield all heavily involved in the business. It operates two West Coast opencast coalmines — Giles Creek near Reefton and Strongman just out of Greymouth. Phil says the upward trajectory of BCML has been closely aligned with the development of the South Island dairy industry. As the dairy industry has grown so too has the demand for coal. “Dairy factories use coal to power the boilers needed to dry milk into powder for export. We supply coal to Westland Milk Products, along with other factories in Tasman and Canterbury. They’re our large-scale customers but we also supply hospitals, schools, food growers and processors and freezing works.” The Giles Creek operation employs around 30 staff directly involved in mining operations along with a team of support staff including truck drivers, office staff, diesel mechanics and engineers.
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