Why mining is crucial to NZ’s low-emissions future
Thursday, 26 September 2024
Alan J Eggers is executive chairman of Australian-based mining company Trans-Tasman Resources.
OPINION: One of New Zealand’s best opportunities to boost its economic wellbeing, support the sustainability of its regions and the resilience of its economy lies in extracting more of its natural mineral resources.
The company I lead ‒ Trans-Tasman Resources ‒ has been trying to get approval for a world-class iron sands mine off the Taranaki Coast. Despite willingly complying with all that’s been asked of us we have been vilified and subjected to harassment based on misconceptions and untruths.
That’s regrettable because along with an avalanche of misinformation, there clearly has also been a misunderstanding here. That’s because the transition from fossil fuels to a clean energy, electricity-driven economy will require more mining for key mineral resources required in low-emissions technology ‒ battery storage for renewables, electric vehicles such as buses and cars, and electrification of the economy ‒ not less.
In blunt terms, we can have less fossil fuel extraction, or less mineral mining for clean technologies, but we can’t have both.
The Government recognises this. And this year it has upped its interest in the minerals sector by developing a draft minerals strategy, a draft critical minerals list and has requested a report from GNS Science outlining the country’s mineral endowment and opportunities for its development.
These actions come from the government’s coalition agreement to investigate strategic opportunities from its minerals resources and a desire to double the sector’s export value to $2 billion by 2040.
Minister Shane Jones has said minerals, including vanadium, will not only add to the climate-change journey, but represent a new source of great wealth for New Zealand.
“Sadly, far too many New Zealanders have been deluded by misinformation in respect of minerals,” he has said.
The International Energy Agency has estimated that to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 the world will need six times more minerals for low-emissions technology than are currently being extracted.
Development of electric vehicles, wind turbines, solar panels and battery technologies are driving demand for more minerals – and this is only likely to increase.
More mining will be required to extract these minerals. New Zealand can import these minerals or it can gain economic benefits from harvesting its own natural mineral resources.
This is where it gets challenging for the sector. New Zealand’s regulatory regime has made it extremely difficult and costly to finalise approvals for new mines that will deliver the valuable mineral endowment we have.
It is pleasing to see the minerals strategy aims to improve the efficiency of the process and to make regulatory amendments to create an enabling and enduring framework for responsible minerals development. It is desperately needed.
Since 2008 Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) has invested more than $85 million on its project to harvest iron sands up to 36km off the Taranaki coast.
The iron sands are of national significance. The 3.2 billion tonne vanadium-rich titanomagnetite resource is a world-class deposit capable of delivering sustainable jobs, much-needed infrastructure investment in the Taranaki and Whanganui region, and taxes and royalty streams to the government.
TTR has spent more than 10 years applying for environmental approvals and defending court challenges to its project. The company has conducted comprehensive marine surveys and commissioned Niwa and other experts to research the marine environment to understand the likely impact of its activities. It has also obtained a mining permit.
The research has found the impact can be managed by more than 100 environmental conditions that TTR has agreed with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with an associated suite of comprehensive operating and marine monitoring plans.
The modern seabed minerals harvesting process is all natural, with no chemicals or toxins used.
After extended hearings and expert evidence the project gained EPA environmental approvals in 2017. Opponents then challenged the outcome in the courts. Recently, further EPA hearings again became the subject of future court challenges with no resolution possible to confirm the environmental consents, operating conditions and the pathway to mine development for the project.
TTR has now applied for fast-track consent. The company does not see the fast-track process as a way to bypass environmental concerns or shirk its environmental responsibilities. TTR is committed to low-impact mineral extraction and, as it progresses, fully rehabilitating the seabed to its natural state within two years.
But it does appear the fast-track process is the only way projects of national significance may ever get off, or out, of the ground.