Rocking the world from Matamata [the Rocktec years]

After selling his Barmac business to Svedala Industri AB, rock wizard Paul Tidmarsh launched his second engineering company in 1991 and put Matamata firmly on the quarrying and mining map. The second of a two-part profile, by ALAN TITCHALL

The sale of Tidco Barmac to Svedala in 1989 made Paul Tidmarsh a rich man. He owned a model diary farm in the middle of the Waikatio, a prime beachfront home in Mount Mounganui and a new boat.

He didn’t intend to get back into the Q&M engineering business, but the opportunity “just popped up” when Svedala approached him to off-load its ‘warts’ – the non-Barmac, Matamata-based assets it had bought with the original deal. It was an opportunity he couldn’t resist.

With a team of ex Svedala Barmac management, Tidmarsh bought land and buildings and  started over again. His first fancy move was taking on the Svedala agency for its products made outside of New Zealand.

“We also built innovative mining and quarry equipment and were involved with building many of the country’s larger quarries, including those of Stevensons, Winstone, Fulton Hogan etc as green sites,” says Tidmarsh.

“We installed Svedala agency products but also worked closely with Barmac – if anyone wanted one installed, we did that too.”

Rocktec was sold to Stevensons late last year, but two of his engineering creations remain in the family interests.  The first is a massive, quarry face rock breaker called a Terminator.

“We bought it back from Svedala, they didn’t want it. We improved it and took it to the world.”

Until February last year, the Terminator was made in Matamata and is now produced in Italy. “The value of the dollar and the cost of freight meant we couldn’t compete from Matamata. We use to protect our own manufacturing facilities but we don’t own those anymore.”

Another piece of Tidmarsh engineering still in his hands is an Angle Shaft Impactor, which is a copy of the Barmac that runs on an angle, which has many advantages.

“We have developed it, patented it, and have made a few as we work our way through to a commercial stage. As we don’t have a manufacturing facility anymore, this is technology that we are going to on-sell.”

The design is being marketed in France under yet another ‘partner’ and a company called ASI Ltd, says Tidmarsh.

The shareholding approach is one that has worked him through many companies, with the family holding a majority ownership. “By the time I sold Rocktec the family interest was down to 60 percent.”

It’s a way of maintaining loyalty and keeping the “team together”, says Tidmarsh. Some staff members have stayed with him on various projects for over 35 years.

The interview is not half way through before Tidmarsh has mentioned his passion for industrial minerals and yet another partnership – one that “didn’t work out” this time, but did lead into the industrial minerals game.

“When I sold out to Svedala I bought into a scrap metal business in Penrose Auckland called In Metals. It’s a long story, but it didn’t work out. I got my money out and ended up with some building infastructure in Matamata involved in the scrap metal business.

“I converted the business from scrap metal to industrial minerals under a company called Blue Pacific Minerals with three or four companies under this umbrella.”

Blue Pacific Minerals was initially involved with aluminum dross extraction – a waste product from making aluminum that is full of metals that are extracted and sold internationally.

“We built a factory and processed dross until the local, secondary aluminum smelters started closing down. We ended up with a very modern, automated plant and no raw materials.”

For the past decade Blue Pacific Minerals (previously trading as Resource Refineries) turned it sights on developing markets for its zeolite mineral resource at Ngakuru (between 15,000 and 20,000 tonnes per year), and more recently a large (three million tonnes) perlite deposit near Atiamuri.

Tidmarsh is particularly excited over the perlite resource.

“We are about to break into some good overseas markets. Perlite is a commodity with a market price, you have to try and beat it or do something better. It’s like cheese – a basic  commodity but you make something a little different and the market is prepared to pay more.”

The country’s minerals are very young, he adds, some between 10,000 and 100,000 years old with some unique applications that include using zeolite as a chemical carrier in the agricultural sector and to clean up phosphate nutrients in lakes and waterways.

Perlite is a volcanic mineral product that expands under extreme heat. “Pops like popcorn, to 30 times its size,” says Tidmarsh.

“The best perlites around the world only expand to around 20 times.”

This property makes it an ideal export commodity, he adds. “One cubic metre of our perlite makes 30 cubic metres of product.” Perlite is used extensively in cryogenic applications – cold box insulation, loose fill LNG tanks etc.

“Now my main engineering interests have gone and the farms have been sold, a big load has been taken off my shoulders to give me the time to concentrate on something I have become very passionate about.

“Industrial minerals are my future,” he says, inviting the magazine to feature his perlite and zeolite mines in a future edition.

He also suggests a couple of other old industry hands that I should profile in future issues, including Keith Neiderer. That’s the thing about this industry, I say – it’s not short of down-to-earth characters who haven’t been shy to get stuck in and make a difference.

“And that’s what I have always liked about the industry. We all started at the rock face and have grown up inside the industry – we have all had dirt under our fingernails.”

Part 1: Rocking the world from Matamata [the Barmac years]