Mining prospect offers ‘seems so crazy’
A decision to accept applications to prospect for minerals on conservation land across Nelson and Marlborough has been labelled as ‘‘crazy’’ by Forest & Bird.
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, part of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), recently reopened 7828km2 across the top of the South Island for prospecting permits.
It had been closed for three years after a moratorium was put on accepting permit applications to allow regional aeromagnetic surveys and geochemical sampling to be carried out to assess the potential for mining minerals.
Those restrictions were lifted on July 8.
Last November, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced there would be no new mines on conservation land.
Forest & Bird top of the south regional manager Debs Martin said the decision created expectations that were concerning, as it was likely overseas companies would be interested.
‘‘On one hand, the prime minister announced there would be no new mines on conservation land but on the other hand we are announcing to the world that areas within conservation land are open for prospecting.
‘‘They aren’t going to be doing that for fun,’’ Martin said.
‘‘Then they will put pressure on the Government and say: why did you open this up for prospecting if you weren’t ever going to allow mining?’’
A permit would allow the holder the right to prospect for specified minerals and is restricted to low impact activities such as aerial surveys, geological mapping and hand sampling.
Martin said the area covered the Dun Mountain and Red Hills, in the Mt Richmond Forest Park, which were part of an ultramafic mineral belt that had unusual geology and provided habitat for a number of threatened species.
It also included parts of the Kahurangi and Nelson Lakes national parks and the Howard Conservation area. ‘‘It is quite a big broad brush that they have drawn across our region and it involves a lot of areas and it just seems so crazy.’’
Mining is prohibited on schedule 4 land, which includes national parks, but minimum impact activities such as geological, geochemical and geophysical surveying are permitted under the Crown Minerals Act.
‘‘Conservation land is conservation land, it is not mining land,’’ Martin said.
‘‘No new mines on public conservation land should mean that; our biodiversity is in crisis.’’
Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage said the timing of the moratorium ending was ‘‘unfortunate’’ given the work being done on the ‘‘no new mines on conservation land’’ policy.
In May, Sage said public input would be sought on proposals to enact the Government’s policy.
A consultation document has yet to be released and public consultation has yet to occur.
She said a prospecting permit from MBIE did not guarantee that the Department of Conservation would grant access to conservation land. A MBIE spokesman said applications for prospecting permits opened on July 9 and to date, no applications had been received for the Nelson-Marlborough area.