The 63^rd Sydney Mining Club Meeting

The rise of Centennial Coal from junior hopeful at its 1994 listing to Australia’s largest independent “pure” listed coal company and NSW’s biggest underground producer has been a levitation of unexpected magnitude. CEO Bob Cameron founded the company in 1989 and has now conjured a tally of 13 mines with the August 2002 acquisition of NSW state-owned Powercoal giving it a $350m market cap and a key role in the heart of NSW infrastructure. If you’re a New South Welshman, nearly 40% of the power that lights and warms your life is now generated from Centennial’s coal.

Bob is promising us a story-behind-the-story exclusive account of his extraordinary corporate journey. His deep attraction to the flat-black mineral lies in its history and the intriguing tapestry of support and interdependence its people work with. His management understands it and gives responsibility to each operation which works in a stand-alone company. In return, one source said, his staff would walk across hot coals for him (without any regard for the obvious pun). With the new Powercoal mines now in the fold, the job is to permeate the new mines with Centennial’s special cultural strengths through bathouse and crib room meetings and to offer these mines a new immediacy in solution finding. With Powercoal’s vendor, the NSW Gov’t, still being the main customer and the regulator, one would not expect Centennial to be critical of how these assets were run but there is confidence that efficiency is arriving. Bob Cameron is also keen to transfer his culture of interdependency to the proposed Anvil Hill open cut mine in the Hunter. The new Mandalong mine will add a 4th longwall to the group. But for Bob, the boutique Berrima mine, winkled in the bottom of a gorge will always remain a business of equal importance. Making Centennial tick is a complex task and has many operators asking – how do you do that? Not to be missed!
Julian Malnic
RSVP Tuesday 1st April 2003