Land purchase bid for Waihi mine rejected

Miner OceanaGold has had its bid to buy land for a new tailings dam near its Waihi mine turned down by the Government.

The ASX-listed firm, New Zealand’s biggest gold miner, is mostly owned by US and UK investors and needed Overseas Investment Office approval to buy about 178 hectares of farmland on Trig Rd.

Its provisional recommendation, provided in November, was that the purchase be approved.

But while Associate Finance Minister David Clark believed the purchase was likely to create “substantial and identifiable benefits”, coalition colleague and Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage did not.

“Minister Sage does not believe using productive rural farmland to establish a longterm tailings reservoir of mining waste creates substantial and identifiable benefits,” the ministers said in a joint statement.

When ministers are split on a decision, it is declined.

Gold has been mined at Waihi for more than 100 years. The company, which also operates the Macrae’s Mine near Dunedin, produced 83,500 ounces of gold at Waihi last year and is aiming for 60-70,000 this year. In December, the company was granted consent to extend mining there by about 12 years.

The company said it was extremely disappointed by Sage’s decision not to allow the purchase of the two farms.

“We are disappointed by what we have heard but have not had the opportunity to read the decision in full. We will review the decision and consider our next steps,” said Kit Wilson, the company’s senior community adviser at Waihi.