West Coast vying for Government funding

MBIE had chosen the West Coast proposal and one other to submit business cases. Photo / File

The West Coast is vying for government funding for a new minerals research institute to find manufacturing opportunities for the region.

The proposed New Zealand Institute for Minerals to Materials Research (NZIMMR) is a collaboration between Minerals West Coast, Te Runanga o Ngati Waewae and CRL Energy Ltd.

West Coast economic development manager Kevin Stratful heads the steering group.

It's seeking a grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), which sought proposals for regional research institutes.

Mr Stratful said there had been 14 proposals. MBIE had chosen the West Coast proposal and one other to submit business cases, which MBIE would fund.

If the Coast was successful it would receive a grant of $10 million to $12 million over four years to develop research facilities, he said.

He believed the Coast was in a "pretty strong position" to gain the funding.

Mr Stratful said the steering group, which included Development West Coast, had spent six months developing the proposal.

It had to provide the business case by early May and expected a decision from MBIE in June.

"If we get approval in June we hope to get going sometime early in 2018."

NZIMMR would aim to come up with new and added value products for West Coast minerals.

"It's really looking at what do we have on the Coast, what are we not exploring, and can we create added value products?

"For example, can we create a manufacturing unit to build or make high-value products from the minerals that are not currently being used."

An institute would create 22 to 25 jobs and hopefully provide manufacturing opportunities. The products would have to be unique and of sufficient quantity to lower distribution costs.

NZIMMR would be owned by a trust, with all profits going back into research, Mr Stratful said.

The Buller District Council's business development facilitator John Hill had been a key advocate of a research institute and was on the steering group, Mr Stratful said. "That's how the whole thing basically started."

Why Greymouth?

Asked why the institute would be located in Greymouth, given Mr Hill's involvement and Buller's coal production, Mr Stratful said Greymouth was the base for Minerals West Coast and CRL and had a "research facility of some sort" in Tai Poutini Polytechnic.

Both he and Mr Hill said Buller would benefit.

Mr Hill said the research itself would probably only employ, at best, 10 people.

"But what actually comes out of the research will employ substantial numbers of people - for example the new uses of coal.

"My aim is that the new manufacturing that will result from the research will predominantly be based in Buller... that's where the raw material is."

Mr Hill said he had always believed the West Coast needed a research institute to find new uses for minerals, particularly coal.

"I think that's what will come out of it - I'm convinced of it."

- Westport News