Ten controversial projects on the fast-track list

Sunday, 13 October 2024

Nearly two decades after assembling, and nearly a decade after taking the fight against Trans-Tasman Resources to court, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining are having to regroup.

The extraction industry, which includes seabed mining, was thrown a major lifeline when the much-awaited list of projects to be “fast-tracked” under the Government’s contentious one-stop shop for resource consenting was published.

One of the 149 projects was Trans-Tasman Resources’ bid to mine iron sands off the south of Taranaki bight.

“We're sort of regrouping and having a look now, just to see what we can do to oppose it … I think people are going to be taking to the streets and the beaches,” said chairperson Cindy Baxter.

It was not unexpected for Baxter’s group, which formed shortly after the foreshore and seabed debate of the 2000s, when international mining firms began testing the waters on their desire to vacuum up the ocean sands beneath.

Trans-Tasman Resources applied to mine 50 million tonnes of seabed every year for 35 years in 2014, but was rejected by the Environmental Protection Authority, ending the interest of international mining firms.

But the firm brought the application back, KASM took it to the Environment Court, and the battle reached the Supreme Court before returning to the authority -- only for Trans-Tasman to pull out from the process in March.

With the fast-track legislation on the horizon, as Baxter put it, the mining firm “walked away”.

It’s not the only controversial project on the list of 149 projects possibly on the fast track.

Conservationists have also decried mining projects in Waihi, West Coast, and Otago. Some have also been denied before, including a Hawke’s Bay dam, a waste-to-energy plant in Canterbury, and a Southland fish farm.

Others represent the friction and conflict that are inevitable in a piece of legislation that will allow political intervention to override consenting processes, such as a housing project in south Auckland.

Taranaki seabed mining

Trans-Tasman Resources executive chairman Alan Eggers called the seabed mining project’s inclusion on the fast-track list a “welcome development”.

“Our project offers huge economic development opportunities… including hundreds of jobs in the Taranaki region,” he said.

Eggers said that, despite what opponents say, his firm had agreed to more than 100 conditions to ensure the seabed would return to “its natural state” within two years of mining.

But Baxter worries that, because of the way the fast-track regime is set up, the expert panel will not hear expert advice that for blue whales in the south Taranaki bight, the mining will be like “living next to a vacuum cleaner for 35 years”, or a penguin expert on how kororā, little blue penguin, travel more than 100km to feed on Patea shoals.

“You imagine a great big seabed mining operation, that’s goneburger for those wee guys.”

There’s an alliance of opposition that extends further. Iwi groups have rallied against the proposed seabed mining, and fisheries companies including Talley’s have joined past court action.

The conflict between industries had, in March, Resources Minister Shane Jones attempt to rule himself out of decisions on Taranaki seabed mining because, as a vocal champion of both mining and fishing, he did not want to be caught between two friends.

Waikato gold and coal mining

On land, there are plenty of mining projects which face already well-organised resistance.

In Waikato, the objective is gold and coal.

The Waihi North Project will expand mining operations in the Coromandel town, Waihi.

Oceana Gold bought the Waihi gold mine in 2015, and has since sought consents to expand operations with a new underground mine north of Waihi, a new open pit mine, tailings storage and other facilities. The expected yield is 1.6 million ounces of gold and more than 2.2 million ounces of silver in 13 years.

But environmentalists oppose the expansion because the new underground mine, at Wharekirauponga, would be under conservation land.

Forest & Bird has said conservation experts are concerned the vibrations from drilling would harm the rare Archey’s frog, as well as the potential for subsidence and reduced water through the Wharekirauponga and Otahu rivers.

Another Waikato mining project seeking an extension through inclusion on the fast-track list is BT Mining’s Rotowaro coal mine, near Huntly. While the application was to “extend mining operations into surrounding areas”, mine operator Bathurst Resources chief executive Richard Tacon has previously said it was not about “expanding production”.

“It is about continuing to supply coal to customers, for as long as they need coal during any transition they may have away from coal.”

West Coast mining

On the West Coast, Bathurst Resources is also seeking to expand its Stockton coal mine.

The plan is to mine 20 million tonnes of coal over 25 years for export from the Stockton Plateau. Also planned was mining at Upper Waimangaroa and on the Denniston Plateau. The company said 390 jobs would be retained in Buller and 50 outside the district.

There is community support for coal mining on the West Coast, however climate change and conservation advocacy groups are critical of ongoing fossil fuel extraction.

“Extending the Bathurst coal mine … during a climate crisis is beyond irresponsible,” said Lan Pham, the Green Party’s environment spokesperson. Her party promised to review and revoke consented projects which cause “significant harm”, if in Government.

Another such fast-track project of concern on the West Coast, again supported by some but not all in the community, is TiGA Minerals and Metal’s planned mineral sand mining over 635ha near Barrytown.

The 12 year mining project seeks to extract minerals like garnet, ilmenite, zircon and gold, and would mean an average of 50 truck movements per day between the site and Greymouth or Westport -- opposed by some in the community.

Forest & Bird said it was “a significant concern” for the Westland petrel which bred above the Barrytown flats.

Otago gold mining

Oceana Gold also has a gold mine in Otago it’s seeking to expand.

The Macraes Phase Four project would expand the country’s largest active gold mine on land owned by the company, including expanding existing open pit mines through pasture, tussock grassland, and small “ephemeral” wetlands.

Santana Minerals is seeking go-ahead for the Bendigo-Ophir Gold project of both open pit and underground mines on two Central Otago stations, after what it calls the most significant single gold deposit discovery in NZ in four decades.

Santana Minerals executive director Damian Spring told The Post the mine sought to excavate what the company believes to be $4.4 billion worth of gold in its 10 year lifetime based on the current gold price of NZ$3900 per ounce.

Forest & Bird said the “enormous hard rock” mine would damage an area that had conservation protections for its rare plants, lizards and invertebrates; a large tailings dam would risk arsenic contamination of waterways.

The Central Otago Winegrowers Association said while there’s potential economic benefit there would be a water supply risk and problems through losing a key road, impacts of recreational users and tourists, and a lack of detail about the sustainability credentials.

This raised “concerns about potential greenwashing of a project that is inherently extractive and energy intensive”.

Auckland prison expansion

Unexpected was a project put forward by Corrections to double the capacity of Auckland prison at Paremoremo, from 681 beds to 1200 beds. The prison was first built in 1968 and holds male inmates in minimum to maximum security settings.

The Government already has a 810-bed expansion of Waikeria prison under way, and it expects through a range of tough-on-crime changes to sentencing that prison numbers would increase by up to 1730 people in the coming years.

Yet Corrections deputy chief executive Alastair Turrell said while it was looking to future-proof its prisons, there were “no immediate plans to expand Auckland prison”.

Amending its designation now meant it could more quickly increase capacity, he said.

People Against Prisons Aotearoa has condemned the “previously unannounced construction” at Auckland prison. The group’s spokesperson, criminologist Dr Emmy Rākete, said turning an already overcrowded facility into a “megaprison” would lead to abuse, violence, and riots.

Tukituki Water Security project

What was the much-fought over Ruataniwha dam project, nixed in 2017 after a battle that ended in the Supreme Court, has returned under a new title: the Tukituki Water Security Project.

Much like the Ruataniwha dam project, this water storage project aims to dam the Makaroro River to create a reservoir for Hawke’s Bay. The outfit behind the project obtained the former work from the Ruataniwha project but has “rescoped” it.

“It is critically important that we explore and develop viable and robust options to deliver water security not only for today, but for future generations to come,” said Mike Petersen, a project spokesperson.

While the Government has expressed support for such a water storage project, it was vigorously opposed last time around for its flooding of 22ha of Ruahine forest park, which Forest & Bird -- which led the court action -- has said is habitat of threatened species.

Wise Water Use Hawke’s Bay has criticised the Central Hawke’s Bay Council for its efforts to erect a community trust to pursue hold consents for the dam as “pure spin” for a failed project that has already cost $27m.

Waitaha hydro project

A hydro scheme to power the equivalent of 12,000 homes on the West Coast has already been a source of controversy.

WestPower, Ngāti Waewae Arahura, and Te Runanga o Makaawhio want to build a run-of-river hydroelectric scheme on the Waitaha River. Such a scheme does not require damming the river for water storage, instead water from the river is diverted through a tunnel to generate electricity.

The project would have built a weir upstream of the Waitaha, as well as a 2km access road and tunnel infrastructure. The entire footprint, according to WestPower, would be 3.6ha within a 31,000ha water catchment, and it would impact 2.6km of the 36km river.

But the area is pristine and popular with kayakers, and in 2019 then-Environment Minister David Parker declined the power scheme application as it would have “significantly undermined the area’s intrinsic values” in ways that could not be mitigated.

Forest & Bird calls the Waitaha “one of NZ’s last remaining wild rivers”.

Waste-to-energy plant in Waimate

The first waste-to-energy plant in NZ might get the green-light through the fast-track regime, dubbed Project Kea, planned to be built in Waimate, South Canterbury.

But this is a project that has failed in the past. The company behind the $350 million plant project is South Island Resource Recovery, which is 40% owned by Renew Energy and 60% by China Tianying Inc and its European subsidiary, Europe ZhongYing BV. China Tianying has several waste-to-energy plants in Asia and Europe.

Renew Energy previously attempted twice to build the plant on the West Coast, but didn’t reach the point of seeking consents, before moving its plans to South Canterbury. There had been community outcry on the West Coast about its application to store 132,000 tonnes of rubbish in Reefton, and about an agreement signed between the Chinese firm and the Buller mayor that was not publicly disclosed.

Once in Canterbury, the consent applications filed with the Canterbury Regional Council and Waimate District Council were in 2023 “called in” by then-Environment Minister David Parker so the application could be considered by the Environment Court.

But this did not progress before the project made it on the fast-track list.

Opponents to the plant in Waimate have formed the group Why Waste Waimate. Spokesperson Robert Ireland said the company had been “working to exclude the community from the process by seeking to expedite its resource consents under the new fast-track legislation”.

“You could fairly predict that many in the long-suffering Waimate community will feel cheated and disgusted at the consideration of a gigantic rubbish burning incinerator on precious farmland as critical infrastructure.”

Southland aquaculture project

Aquaculture projects have made it onto the fast-track list, including a proposed open-ocean salmon farm off Rakiura/Stewart Island that was previously declined.

Ngāi Tahu Seafood’s Hananui project, a 2500ha salmon farm 2-6km off the northeastern coast of Rakiura, in Foveaux Strait, was considered under the prior Labour Government’s fast-track scheme.

But it was declined by the Environmental Protection Authority in August 2023 because it would “have adverse effects which are more than minor”, particularly to the neighbouring national park. This was despite the backing of the business community and Environment Southland.

Environment groups expressed considerable concerns about the proposal when it was before the EPA and posed numerous suggestions to consent conditions to minimise harm -- considerations that might soon be before a fast-track panel.

Winton Land’s Sunfield development

Housing developer Winton’s largescale development proposed on the edge of South Auckland, comprising 4400 homes, three retirement villages, and “250,000 m2 of employment, education, and healthcare buildings creating 11,000 permanent jobs”, has for years been controversial.

Facing bureaucratic hurdles, it took Kāinga Ora to court in 2022 over what it said was anti-competitive behaviour for refusing to use its powers under the Urban Development Act to help the project proceed.

Kāinga Ora contested this, but National MP Chris Bishop backed Winton in the stoush. National has received considerable support from Winton chief executive Christopher Meehan by way of donations, including $103,260 in the lead up to the election.

Adding to the political intrigue was that, once entering Government, Bishop became housing minister and minister in charge of the fast-track scheme. The Winton project is now on the list.

Bishop said any conflicts of interest were being appropriately handled.