Bathurst and Talley's: A perfect match goes sour

Richard Tacon became CEO at Bathurst Resources in 2015, around the time of a ‘change in control’ identified seven years later. (Image: Supplied)

Pattrick Smellie

Wed, 30 Jul 2025

By the time it was placed in voluntary administration in 2015, state-owned coal miner Solid Energy had been a headache for its ministerial shareholders for years.Along with other boondoggles, the company’s grandiose plan to turn low-grade Southland lignite coal into transport fuels and fertiliser had begun without authorisation and soaked up capital. By 2013, Solid Energy was reporting a $40 million annual loss and asset writedowns of $151.9m.Four years earlier, investment bank UBS had warned it was “unable to obtain evidence of int...

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