Santana trading halt lifted as it gets everything it needs for mine’s final fast track assessment
Monday, 24 November 2025
Santana Minerals has dropped an announcement about its fast track application for Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project in Central Otago, saying it’s had the green light from the Environmental Protection Authority and now has everything needed for a final assessment.
The Australian company lodged its fast-track application for a huge gold mine near Cromwell at the start of the month.
The mine plan has angered some locals, who have staged protests against the planned open cast mine fearing chemical, light and noise pollution.
At Santana’s annual meeting on November 19, the company’s chair Peter Cook said: “It restores predictability to New Zealand’s investment environment and ensures high-value developments aren’t stalled by unnecessary procedural drag.”
“Put bluntly, the framework is meant to stop major projects being knocked off course by narrow objections,” he said.
“It brings the focus back to what actually matters: balancing real environmental considerations with the wider economic gains in jobs, investment, and long-term national value.”
He said: “Building a social and statutory licence for a project of this scale will always bring complexity. We’ve engaged with a broad spectrum of stakeholders, each bringing their own expectations to the table. Our job has been to navigate those pressures constructively, stay disciplined around what’s appropriate, and ensure any commitments are grounded in fair, transparent, region-wide economic benefit over the life of the project.”
The Green Party said earlier this month it would cancel the Santana Fast Track approval, should the company get one, when it next got into government, a pledge that Finance Minister Nicola Willis called “economic vandalism” that would undermine New Zealand’s reputation as a destination for investment.
Green co-leader Marama Davidson said: “These types of mining are profoundly destructive. Each leaves behind polluted water, scarred landscapes, and divided communities.
“They extract resources from our land, ship them overseas, and leave our people to deal with the aftermath,” she said.
If implemented, the policy would cancel any consents granted for seven of the mining projects that are currently being considered or are due to be considered for fast-tracking.
Included in the firing line would be Trans-Tasman Resources’ proposal to extract iron ore from the South Taranaki Bight and Santana Minerals’ plan for a huge opencast and underground gold mine in Central Otago, both of which are at different stages of the application process.