Mining is not really a sustainable business

JONO Edwards’ story about Commissioner Brent Cowie’s decisions on granting consents for expanding Macraes mine (ODT, 23.10.19) highlights the unsustainability of industrial mining.

Perhaps Mr Cowie has had the disturbing experience of driving behind an Oceana-Gold bus with the slogan ‘‘sustainable mining’’ written on its rear end.

The commissioner notes the low level of consideration given by the Resource Management Act to the issue of climate change.

Although climate change was not generally recognised as a problem when the Act was first brought into oration, calling the Act ‘‘Resource Management’’ was deceitful and exemplifies the practice of labelling acts of Parliament and government departments with names that do not truly represent their intended purpose or function.

For instance, one of our government departments is called the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment, a title obviously devised to make us think that these activities are all one and the same thing and all are businessrelated.

This is not the case because not all work is about business, not all innovation is about employment, and not all employment is about making money.

In the case of the Resource Management Act, you might think the Act has something to do with resources but this is obviously not the case as the ‘‘300 litres of diesel per hour’’ used by trucks at Macraes mine illustrates.

This is an industry approved by the Resource Management Act.

The commissioner says that mining as carried out at Macraes may one day be seen as unsustainable.

In the final analysis, this is the only kind of sustainability that matters because our survival and the natural environment depend on it.

Taranaki Smith

Palmerston

[Abridged]