Bid fails for coal mine on conservation land

A controversial application to mine coal on conservation land on the West Coast has been declined by the Government.

Forest and Bird had taken Rangitira Developments Ltd to the Environment Court over the application, which would have allowed mining in a 12-hectare patch of conservation land at Te Kuha, near Westport.

The company still has access to about 96ha of reserve surrounding the conservation land that it could develop. However, it had indicated the mine would not be economically viable without the higher-grade coal within the conserved area.

The mine was estimated to provide about 60 jobs to the region but would have done ‘‘irreparable damage to an area with very high, unique and nationally significant conservation values’’, according to a joint statement by Minister of Conservation Eugenie Sage and Minister of Energy Resources Megan Woods.

Because of extensive mining elsewhere, the Te Kuha area was one of the last two intact, elevated Brunner coal measure ecosystems, and home to threatened plant and animal species, including the great spotted kiwi, South Island fernbird, West Coast green gecko, and the largest known population of the rare forest ringlet butterfly.

‘‘It is an undisturbed area which is precious and unique,’’ Sage said. ‘‘We have seen, with the major layoffs at Stockton [Mine], with the establishment of the Escarpment then being mothballed, that coal has been a rollercoaster industry. It hasn’t provided long-term sustainable jobs. The economic benefits assessment for the mine showed it was at a poor risk with a perfect storm – if operating costs were higher than anticipated, if there wasn’t as much coal as anticipated, and if coal prices continued to be at low levels.

‘‘The economic benefits of the mine didn’t outweigh the permanent loss and destruction of conservation values.’’

The Buller District Council granted resource consent to mine the area in November.

Rangitira subsidiary Stevenson Mining chief operating officer Anne Brewster was not sure if the company would take further legal action.

The decision was welcomed by Forest & Bird chief executive Kevin Hague as ‘‘a hugely significant, forward-thinking decision that future generations of New Zealanders will be thankful for’’.

‘‘This is intact, pristine forest with significant, rare plants that would be permanently destroyed by open-cast mining,’’ he said.

‘‘We hope this heralds the end of this ill-advised proposal.’’

Sage said the Government’s $1 billion Provincial Growth Fund and the West Coast Bank offered opportunity for investment in other industries.