Industry concern the decision will make New Zealand less attractive to international mining investors.

Environmental protests against oil, gas and gold mining have broken out from one end of the country to the other in the last two days.

Straterra says the government is right to try and improve the Resource Management Act, dismissing environmental groups' claims of a ministerial power grab as "rubbish".

The Pike River Royal Commission has done a good job but the country's small coal mining industry should not be over-regulated, a resources industry body says.

The Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on mining in the conservation estate brings a welcome dose of sanity to the mining debate, Straterra CEO Chris Baker said today.

He commended Dr Jan Wright for presenting mining as an activity that should be and can be an environmentally responsible activity – and said that this concept was already well established.

Straterra has heralded a new Australian Minerals Council report as timely proof of mining’s economic value outside of direct royalty revenue.

The report, by Deloitte Australia, states that the mining sector played “a key role in shielding Australia from some of the worst consequences of the global financial crisis”.

Value added, industrial production, exports, employment, wages and investment all grew more rapidly in the mining sector than in the wider economy during the 2008-2009 period.