Mine battle over $1 road
Activists have launched legal action over plans for a new goldmine in Coromandel.
OceanaGold hopes to develop an underground mine, and to dig a 6.8km tunnel, under public conservation land at Wharekirauponga, north of Waihī.
In 2021, Hauraki District Council granted the com- pany the right to occupy road reserve on Willows Rd, a paper road, for $1 per year, to allow for the construction of infrastructure.
Anti-mining group Ours Not Mines is asking a High Court judge to review the decision.
Paper – or unformed – roads appear on maps or surveys but are not always developed or even visible. They have the same status as any other legal road, which means the public has the same right to use them.
Ours Not Mines will argue the construction of a ventilation shaft, helipad and staff accommodation on four areas of road reserve interferes with the public right to pass along the road ‘‘unencumbered’’. ‘‘We believe [the licence] should never have been granted because it is not actually being used as a paper road,’’ spokesperson Morgan Donoghue said. Donoghue also questioned the true economic value of the consent.
‘‘Why did the Hauraki District
Council grant a 40-year licence for $1 to OceanaGold, when they say they can recover $1.8 billion of gold from Wharekirauponga? ‘‘Why wasn’t the council more commerciallyminded?’’ The company argues access to the proposed facility would be from an underground tunnel off private land, with no mining on conservation land at surface level. To proceed, it also needs resource consents, and has lodged applications with Hauraki District Council and Waikato Regional Council. A spokesperson said its application to use ‘‘small sections of unformed roading reserve was made in accordance with the proper application of relevant laws’’.
The Wharekirauponga Forest, in the Parakiwai Valley, has a long association with gold mining. Royal Standard conducted surveys in the 1890s but the site was deemed insufficient and was abandoned. Exploration drilling started in 2005. OceanaGold found gold and silver in the area and applied for a mining permit in May 2019.
Conservationists fear vibrations from the drilling will impact the reproduction of Archey’s frogs. It is one of the world’s rarest and most endangered amphibians. There is also concern about the impact of tunnelling, and the risk of subsidence.
Dewatering – the removal of
groundwater or surface water by pumping – would also have a significant impact on the Wharekirauponga and Otahu rivers, Ours Not Mines said. And they also worry about contamination of water courses as tailings (the hazardous waste byproduct) are dumped into a nearby dam.
OceanaGold’s spokesperson said: ‘‘We are committed to mining responsibly, managing our effects and, more broadly, ensuring the Waihi North Project makes a positive contribution to our host communities and society, and respects the natural values of the area.’’
Donoghue pointed to the David vs Goliath battle ahead of the community-funded group who can’t match the resources of the Australian-Canadian-owned multinational, because the local council had ‘‘failed in its duty to protect the environment’’.
The pressure group is selling prints by renowned Coromandel artist Stanley Palmer to fund the legal action.
As well as public conservation land, Wharekirauponga is deemed nationally significant and a Significant Natural Area in the Hauraki District Plan. A council spokesperson said it was unable to comment as the matter is before the court.
Earlier this month, Stuff revealed work on the Government’s promise to ban mining on conservation land had slowed because of a row over the sacred Mā ori stone pounamu.
Work began on progressing the proposal late last year. But new Conservation Minister Willow-Jean Prime put the brakes on over fears it could erode Ngā i Tahu’s Treaty settlement rights to pounamu, or greenstone – and breach existing legislation that enshrines it.