The government has ruled out mining in all schedule 4 land but has taken steps to encourage mining in less contentious areas of the country.In a joint press conference today, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilk
The government has ruled out mining in all schedule 4 land but has taken steps to encourage mining in less contentious areas of the country.
In a joint press conference today, Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee and Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson announced that:
- no areas will be removed from schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act;
- the proposed addition of 12,400 hectares to schedule 4 will go ahead;
- an aeromagnetic survey will be carried out to narrow down on prospective areas in Northland (in partnership with the Northland Regional Council, Far North District Council and Enterprise Northland), the West Coast of the South Island and certain other areas of the South Island;
- new national parks and marine reserves will automatically be added to schedule 4; and
- applications to mine Crown land will now be considered by both the Minister of Energy and Resources and the land-holding minister, as opposed to just the land-holding minister.
The large majority of the 37,552 submissions on the government’s crown minerals stocktake discussion paper, released in March, were opposed to mining in schedule 4 land.
Mr Brownlee said that the process had been a "valuable exercise" and had raised New Zealanders' awareness of the country's mineral potential.
“Essentially the discussion process identified where the minerals industry can and can’t go. As many people have pointed out, around 85 per cent of the country is not protected by Schedule 4, and a great deal of that land has mineral potential.
“New Zealanders have given the minerals sector a clear mandate to go and explore that land, and where appropriate, within the constraints of the resource consent process, utilise its mineral resources for everyone’s benefit,” Mr Brownlee said.
He expected the collection of further technical data through aeromagnetic surveys in Northland and the West Coast of the Southland to escalate mineral exploration and exploration.
The new joint ministerial sign-off is also expected to create more favourable conditions for industry, as will new Department of Conservation standard operating procedures, to be issued by Ms Wilkinson.
Why it wasn’t worth it
Mr Brownlee refuted suggestions that today’s announcement represented a monumental back down for the government.
“If you’re going to have a discussion document and you’ve already decided what to do, then that’s a dishonest decision. We made it very clear... that this was going to be a genuine discussion, we did want to know the opinions of New Zealanders, and we were open to what that opinion would tell us.”
The government had initially thought to approve the proposal to remove the Inangahua section of the Paparoa National Park from schedule 4, Mr Brownlee said, but later decided that an area of 3000 hectares was not worth generating negativity towards the mining industry in other parts of the country.
This was the theme behind the wider decision not to proceed with the removal of schedule 4 land, Mr Brownlee said.
He does not anticipate the schedule 4 proposal to be revisited in the near future.
