Decision to sell station to miner not easy, family says
A family which has owned a Central Otago farm for 70 years says it was not an easy decision to sell up to miner Santana Minerals for $25 million.
Time and talk were the keys to making the decision to sell most of the farm to the Australian mining company, Ardgour Station owner Bruce Jolly said yesterday.
Mining company Santana Minerals has announced it had bought more than 2800ha of the Tarras station for $25m as part of preparations for its Bendigo-Ophir Gold project.
Celebrations were low-key when the sale contract was signed, Mr Jolly said: "You'd hardly call it a celebration."
Phone calls to his and wife Linda's adult children were the first things they did.
While the family had plenty of bright ideas for the windfall, the only thing Mr Jolly was sure of was that it would make succession planning much easier.
Ardgour Station had been farmed by the Jolly family since 1955 and by Mr and Mrs Jolly since 1984.
Mr Jolly said he was coming up to retirement age and none of the family wanted to take over the property; nevertheless, it still was not an easy decision.
"It took some time and a whole lot of family discussion."
Making the decision easier was the fact they did not live on the farm, so it was more like selling their workplace than their home.
Their access agreement with Santana had a purchase option in it but there had been no guarantee that would actually happen.
However, power and road access came right along the property and it was the ideal position for the mine's infrastructure and process plant, Mr Jolly said.
They are keeping the balance of the Ardgour property on which cherries and apricots are grown.
Over the hill at Matakanui Station, co-owner Tracy Paterson, who farms their 9300ha with husband Andrew, said she was delighted for the Jollys.
"You are never going to make $25m from farming," Mrs Paterson said.
The sale still has to be approved by the Overseas Investment Office.
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