Don Elder has revealed that when Solid Energy employed him as its chief executive a decade ago he was supposed to wind the company up."I was hired, basically, to close the company down," Dr Elder told a breakfast meeting in Westport. "It wa
Don Elder has revealed that when Solid Energy employed him as its chief executive a decade ago he was supposed to wind the company up.
"I was hired, basically, to close the company down," Dr Elder told a breakfast meeting in Westport. "It was a three-year job."
He said he was expected to sell off the parts of the company with any value. The remainder, including Stockton opencast mine, was to be mined out and cashed up.
At that stage Stockton had a mine life of only three to six years.
Since then the mine has been expanded and now employs about 560 workers - more than twice as many as a decade ago.
"Where we are today, of course, we hope that Stockton has a 20-year life and beyond," Dr Elder said.
If anyone had told him a decade ago that he would still be with Solid Energy in 2010, "I would have said you were nuts".
He thanked Buller people for their "support and understanding" over the last six months, when strikes hit Stockton and other mines nationwide.
He said Solid Energy had made big changes at Stockton, and change was always difficult for people to work through.
"We understand that. But of course the important thing is the change was not for change's sake. The change was basically we wanted to have a 20-year life into the future."
Solid Energy and Australian company Downer EDI formed the Stockton Alliance last year and have been running the mine together since October.
