No plan for further appeal of mining firm’s sentence for runoff

AN appeal against a sentence ordering the operator of a defunct Lawrence mine to pay fines for sediment runoff into a waterway has been dismissed.

Maruia Mining Ltd and director Alan Roberts do not plan to take the case further, but say that is only because Mr Roberts cannot afford a higher appeal.

‘‘Their council [the Otago Regional Council] had no actual evidence on any discharge from the mine site,’’ Mr Roberts said.

However, the High Court found the mine did not have appropriate land mitigation measures or diversion drains in place, and had previous offences for poor mine management.

The company and Mr Roberts were sentenced in the Dunedin District Court in October last year for breaching section 15(1) (b) of the Resource Management Act, and ordered to jointly pay a fine of $60,000 and $25,000 towards investigation costs to the Otago Regional Council, which brought the charges against them.

Being ‘‘far from happy’’ with the way the case went, Mr Roberts appealed the case to the High Court at Wellington in

June this year, he said.

‘‘Unfortunately the Otago Regional Council put up two highpowered lawyers against us and we lost the appeal, but we did get $25,000 of costs extinguished.’’

The appeal was submitted on the basis that the point of egress, or exit point, of the discharge was below the boundary of the mine site, and the land from which the water was flowing was also not apart of the mine site.

Justice Simon France wrote in his June 23 judgement that, under the Resource Management Act 1991, it was an offence to discharge any contaminant on to land where the contaminant may enter water, and that the charges were found to be proved during the trial last year.

‘‘The mine arrangements were flawed in terms of managing discharge.’’

He did, however, note the egress of the discharge was not on the mine site.

‘‘But if the premise fails, as it did, the exact boundaries are not a relevant aspect,’’ he wrote.

An alternative source of discharge was considered, but was rejected.