Fertilising the economy with a 650 year supply of lignite

Federated Farmers is applauding the Solid Energy/Ravensdown preliminary study to confirm if a coal to fertiliser plant in Southland is economically feasible.

"With some $140 billion in mineral reserves, the responsible exploitation of New Zealand’s mineral wealth represents an important part of closing up the productivity gap with Australia," says Don Nicolson, President of Federated Farmers.

“The numbers involved in this feasibility study are mind-boggling. Even if annually it converts two-million tonnes of lignite into fertiliser, there are enough proven lignite reserves to keep the plant ticking over for some 650 years.

“The study opens up the prospect of 500 new jobs and the construction of a state of the art facility in an investment worth some $1.4 billion.

“Given New Zealand imports some half million tonnes of gas or coal based urea each year, the new plant will likely be built to the latest environmental standards. This has obvious benefits from a global climate change perspective.

“The really exciting thing is the potential of turning New Zealand from an importer into an exporter, generating the equivalent of $1.5 billion in export equivalent income each year.

“That amount represents one and a half times the size of the wine industry or three times the current value of the wool clip.

“It’s also an example where companies can leverage off agriculture, New Zealand’s most important industry, into completely new areas. In this case taking a low value mineral which occurs in vast quantities and turning that mineral into a high value export.

“Federated Farmers is increasingly optimistic about the future given the proposed Global Alliance on agricultural research and an upswing in commodity prices. All we need is for the policy ducks to be lined up in order to support economic development.

“Along with this project, Federated Farmers can see significant gains in economic development that will lift the standard of living for all New Zealanders,” Mr Nicolson concluded.