A $3.5 BILLION bid for Hunter Valley and Queensland coal company Felix Resources could need Federal Government approval but a Herald survey shows foreign ownership already dominates the industry in the Hunter.
Analysis of more than 40 operating and proposed coalmines shipping coal through Newcastle or supplying the region's power stations reveals few are completely Australian-owned.
Maitland's Cant family, which owns the Bloomfield and Rix's Creek mines, may be the only private operators left in the Hunter.
Centennial Coal, which listed on the stock exchange with a business based on supplying domestic power stations, owns its five Hunter mines outright but another small listed producer, Whitehaven Coal, has Japanese firm Idemitsu as a partner at one of its Gunnedah mines, Tarrawonga.
In tonnage terms, three companies, Xstrata, Rio Tinto and BHP Billiton, dominate the Hunter's export coal industry. Rio and BHP Billiton have some Australian blood in their veins but are now firmly on the international stage.
Rio's biggest shareholder is China's Chinalco and just 15 per cent of its stock, reportedly, is in Australian hands.
Xstrata is listed on the London Stock Exchange but based in Zug, Switzerland, and Swiss trading house Glencore is its biggest shareholder with about 40 per cent of the stock.
The affairs of these three companies are well known but a second tier of lesser-known companies has roosted in the Hunter.
Brazilian group Vale owns the Camberwell and Glennies Creek mines with Japanese partners, and South African-based Anglo American has Dartbrook and Drayton with Japanese and South Korean partners.
Donaldson Coal, which operates the Donaldson, Tasman and Abel mines, has Hong Kong's Noble Group as controlling shareholder. Noble bought the Duralie and Stratford mines by taking over Gloucester Coal.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union northern region president Ian Murray said yesterday the union was broadly comfortable with foreign ownership of the coal industry but it was sobering to take stock of how little remained in Australian hands.
"They used to talk about selling off the farm, well I can assure you the farm was sold off long ago," Mr Murray said.
"It's up to the politicians to make the laws to protect Australian interests but there's precious little beyond wages and a couple of bucks a tonne royalty that stays in this country.
"We're talking about the very biggest and most profitable companies in the world here, which is why it's a bit rich for them to be crying poor and begging for more compensation from the Federal Government's carbon pollution reduction scheme."
A Chinese takeover of Felix would give it control of the Ashton and Moolarben deposits. Another Chinese company, China Shenhua, will pay the State Government more than $600 million to develop the Watermark coal area near Gunnedah.
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