Dispute over black sand source
Environmentalists are worried that mining iron sand off the South Taranaki coast could impact west Auckland’s beaches.
The Waitakere Ranges Protection Society has made a submission against Trans-Tasman Resources‘ (TTR) proposal to extract and export up to 5 million tonnes of iron sand a year, for 35 years.
‘‘The black-sand beaches of the west coast are iconic and a unique environment that will be placed at risk,’’ society president John Edgar says.
TTR spokesperson Amanda Woodbridge says mining the South Taranaki Bight would have no impact on the local coast, let alone the west Auckland beaches. There is no strong ocean current system transporting the sand to the beaches of west Auckland, she says. ‘‘The source of the black sands that occur on Waitakere beaches come from iron sand which has been deposited in the North Taranaki Bight.’’
But Edgar says the sand in the mining area does supply the beaches along the Waitakere Ranges, is non-renewable, and its mining would have a significant impact on coastal process, and cause erosion and disruption.
TTR is applying to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) for marine and marine discharge consents to mine sand from 66 square kilometres of ocean near Patea.
The seabed would be hoovered up with a bottom crawling machine from a depth of 20-to-42 metres to a special mining vessel where iron ore is separated from 90 per cent of the sediment, which is then returned down a pipe to four metres above the seabed.
The company’s previous application to mine the area was declined in 2014, but TTR says its new application addresses its short-comings.
The EPA’s decision making committee said in its previous decision that experts agree sand from offshore within the proposed mining location was considered to be a minor source for beaches.
The committee said it did not have enough information at the time to be satisfied the lifesupporting capacity of the environment would be safeguarded or the adverse effects avoided, remedied or mitigated.
TTR says it has now done an ‘‘extensive amount of additional science’’.
The majority of the effects of its proposed mining are minor, it says.