The boss of New Zealand's largest mining company said the
role coal plays in electricity generation is rightfully declining, but the
resource will have a life past 2050 for steelmaking.
2050 is the key deadline for
decarbonisation, as emissions need to be net zero by then to keep warming below
1.5 degrees.
Bathurst Resources chief executive Richard
Tacon said there is a valid argument that reliance on coal for energy
generation needs to decline sharply if international climate goals are going to
be within reach.
"In New Zealand the coal-fired Huntly
plant is only used as a last resort, and that's the way it should be.
"I would much rather see our coal
going into a process like making structural steel and cladding for New
Zealand's buildings."
This may seem an unusual position for a
lifelong coal miner, but Tacon insisted demand for coal will still be strong
past 2050 - just not for electricity purposes.
"At Bathurst the coals that we are
targeting and selling now are principally for steelmaking.
"To turn an iron ore into a steel
product you need a lot of energy and a lot of heat, because you have to break
down a very stable chemical bond."
Long life
predicted for coking coal exports
In the year to June 30 2023, Bathurst
Resources sold 2.1 million tons of coal. Around 1.7 million tons of that would
be used for steelmaking, with most sold to producers in Japan, India, South
Korea, and Australia.
That's primarily metallurgical, or coking,
coal - meaning coal used to create coke, a fuel and reducing agent that smelts
iron ore in blast furnaces.
New Zealand Steel, which operates the
country's largest steel mill at Glenbrook, does not use coking coal in its
operations. They rely on thermal coal to operate four kilns and two melters.
According to Robin Davies, the New Zealand-based head of parent company
BlueScope Steel, that makes their transition off coal easier than other
steelmakers.
New Zealand Steel already has work under
way to electrify half of its kilns and melters and hopes to decarbonise all its
Glenbrook mill operations within the next decade.