Santana Minerals on the road to opening controversial Central Otago gold mine

Saturday, 8 November 2025

Australian company Santana Minerals this week lodged its fast-track application for a huge gold mine near Cromwell, and received a critical mining permit. Mike White investigates what happens now, who gets a say, and who decides whether the controversial mine, which has divided Central Otago, goes ahead.

Monday was a big day for Damian Spring, Santana Minerals’ chief executive.

For months he’d been wrangling all the information and reports about the company’s planned Bendigo-Ophir gold mine near Cromwell, and putting it into a whopping application that he finally filed at the start of the week.

Monday was a big day at the Environmental Protection Agency, also.

Greeting staff returning after the weekend was Santana’s 9400-page application to have its goldmine approved under the government’s controversial fast-track legislation, an “expedited pathway” that could see a decision made within six months.

If given the green light, Spring and his team would be allowed to start digging four open pits in the hills at Bendigo, near Cromwell, the largest of which would be 1km long and 200m deep. Underground mining would also begin after seven years.

The mine would have a 1km long processing plant where rock was crushed, and gold extracted using up to 1900kg of cyanide a day.

A 2km tailings facility to store toxic sludge would remain forever, and the four pits would not be filled in.

The mine would operate around the clock for 14 years, though its life could be extended, as has occurred with other New Zealand goldmines.

It has applied to take 110 litres of water a second from a nearby aquifer, and will use 10-15 million litres of diesel a year.

Santana’s proposal has proved extremely controversial, with opponents encompassing local residents and Hollywood star Sam Neill.

But Santana has decried the “endless obstruction and commentary” of critics, and is instead promising riches for Central Otago (350 direct jobs), and the country ($1.8 billion in tax and royalties) on the back of rocketing gold prices.

The 135 reports Santana filed with the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday detail all the aspects of the proposal, from environment to economics.

But many say they’re still in the dark about Santana’s evidence. And many are angry the process shuts them out from having a say.

What happens now?

The fast-track process was created by the current government as an alternative to the Resource Management Act, which prescribed wider consultation, but was considered too slow by the coalition.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has described the aim of fast-track legislation being “to crash through the system”.

Resources minister and mining champion Shane Jones is determined to see quick decisions made on major projects, insisting they shouldn’t be tangled and strangled by red tape and “bureaucratic nonsense”.

Despite the first fast-track decisions only beginning to appear now, Jones, and the minister responsible for RMA reform, Chris Bishop, have indicated they have 100 changes to the fast-track legislation they want to shunt through by Christmas, to speed up the process even further.

So, what happens now with Santana’s gold mine application?

Well, the clock is ticking, in a process that is intended to take just six months.

First of all the Environmental Protection Agency, which administers the fast-track process, has 15 working days to check Santana’s application is complete.

Then there’s another 10 days to check if there are any competing claims, Treaty issues, or anything else that would stymie the project.

Under the fast-track process, the Government has appointed a panel convener - former Environment Court judge Jane Borthwick, and two associate conveners. They appoint the expert panel of up to four people who will consider Santana’s proposal.

Borthwick can appoint herself as chairperson, and the panel must include one person nominated by the local authorities - in this case, the Central Otago District Council and Otago Regional Council.

At this stage, the panel convener can ask for other advice, comments or reports from relevant agencies, and indicate the timeframe for the panel’s deliberations.

Within 10 days of being established, the panel will also invite comments from people or groups specified in the Fast-track legislation: Iwi, councils, DOC, relevant ministers, and affected parties, such as those with land adjacent to the mine.

These parties have 20 working days to comment on Santana’s 9400-page application, and Santana has a week to respond to these comments.

A hearing may be held, but nobody has a right to be heard at it.

And unless the panel convener has extended the decision-making timeframe, the panel has to make its decision within 30 days of receiving feedback from invited parties.

If the application is going to be declined, or any conditions imposed by the panel, its draft decision must be sent to Santana for comment.

Fast-track panel decisions can be appealed to the High Court, but only by those already involved in the process, only on points of law, and there are only 20 days to do this.

Dig, dig, dig …

Santana has been promising its fast-track application would be lodged “imminently” or “in the next few weeks” most of this year.

But even with the delays, it could still gain approval for the mine by the middle of 2026, and be producing gold a year later.

And on Wednesday, the company received another huge boost, when it was granted a 30-year mining licence for the proposed area, meaning it now only has to get past the fast-track process hurdle.

While the process is handled by expert panellists, there’s no doubting what the Government wants to happen with Santana’s proposal.

As soon as the 30-year-mining permit was announced, Shane Jones rushed out a press release congratulating Santana and enthusing about the project, saying it was a “multibillion-dollar opportunity for Central Otago”.

Jones, who has promised to “turbocharge” mining in New Zealand, said Santana’s mine was important for training “our next generation of miners” with skills needed “to support the growing pipeline of new mining projects across New Zealand over the coming decades.

“It’s projects like Bendigo-Ophir that demonstrate the untapped potential of our minerals estate, even in areas thought to be exhausted by historical mining.”

‘Riding roughshod’, or ‘endless obstruction’?

Despite the clock ticking on a decision about Santana’s application, most remain unaware of all the details.

Even those who do get a say in the process, have only a few weeks to read, consider, get advice on, and respond to environmental, economic, engineering, heritage, landscape, and mine rehabilitation material Santana has spent several years, and $8 million preparing.

Parties such as the local councils and DOC were provided with some of Santana’s material during earlier engagement, but some reports have been handed over only this week.

Santana has published just two of its 135 reports on its website in recent months: One suggesting the economic benefits from the mine, the other indicating its visual impact.

It has always said it will release everything once its fast-track application was filed, but concerned groups like Sustainable Tarras, which is strongly opposing the mine, still don’t have access to the 133 other reports.

When they do, they’ll have to sift through the 9400 pages of detail in just a few weeks. But even then, they have no formal opportunity to put their views and arguments to the fast-track panel, unless the panel makes an exception.

Councils, who are usually at the heart of such decisions in their regions, have no decision-making role in the fast-track process. So while constituents and residents can lobby councillors, and express their opinions, they are irrelevant under the process.

Sustainable Tarras spokesperson Rob van der Mark said Santana was “clearly using the fast track process to bypass the community and to ride roughshod over the environment”.

Despite regular communication, Santana had repeatedly failed to answer many reasonable questions from the group, van der Mark said.

This meant they were waiting on the release of Santana’s evidence, but van der Mark questioned whether Santana had been “expert shopping” to get the answers it wanted.

“We have a mammoth task ahead of us. All of us at Sustainable Tarras are unpaid volunteers, who have our regular jobs, businesses, and lives to keep afloat. Santana on the other hand has taken years to prepare all of this information, and has paid their staff and paid experts to prepare this.

“What is also clear is that Santana continues to take a very cynical approach to the local community.

“Their statements about community engagement, early disclosure of reports, and so on are disingenuous. They never had any intention of having meaningful conversations or information flows with us.”

Sustainable Tarras was offered a place on a community liaison group by Santana, but declined, saying Santana had complete control of the group, and it was “a cynical attempt to subjugate and muzzle the local community towards a predetermined outcome”.

Van der Mark pointed to the proposed mine’s significant environmental risks such as contamination of the Clutha River and aquifers; destruction of unique landscapes; illusory benefits for the community; and the damage to existing tourism, fruit, and wine industries by having a vast opencast mine in Central Otago’s heart.

There are also concerns the mine will be the first of many similar projects in Central Otago, with mining companies lining up to explore the area. Therefore, Santana’s application is increasingly seen as a test case for both gold mining in Central Otago, and the Fast-track process.

Damian Spring said their fast-track reports would be available very soon, and he stood behind “the quality and rigour of the work”.

And he pushed back at critics, claiming the community overwhelmingly wants the mine.

“We haven’t been sitting behind keyboards trying to guess what this community thinks. We’ve been out there for the past year, fronting 54 drop-in sessions across the region and showing up at community events in Cromwell, Alexandra and Wānaka.

“We’ve spoken with more than 750 locals face-to-face and around 89% of those who gave feedback supported the project moving forward. These are real conversations with people who live and work here.

“Talk to the contractors, the young families trying to build a future, the small businesses that actually keep this region running. Central Otago wants opportunity, security and a future for the next generation, not endless obstruction and commentary.

“We live here. We raise our kids here. We want responsible progress, and so do the locals who turn up and engage.”

Spring said one person had attended six drop-in sessions to better understand the project.

“That’s the Central Otago we listen to.”

But van der Mark hit back at Spring, saying the Santana boss had indulged in “overly-optimistic promotional messages, of which many are misleading. A lot of the claims are lofty and over-the-top.”

And van der Mark also criticised Jones, saying his outspoken support of Santana, and claims of economic benefits, “are bordering on predetermination. It’s inappropriate for the minister to be cheerleading the Santana application, and it puts unfair pressure on the EPA”.