Proposed West Coast mine to put 70 trucks a day on road
Thursday, 6 March 2025
A mineral sand company is proposing to mine around the clock on private farmland near Hokitika, remove 4 hectares of indigenous forest and put 70 trucks on the road every day.
Westland Mineral Sands Co Ltd has lodged resource consent applications to the West Coast Regional and Westland District councils to mine 300,000 tonnes of ilmenite, garnet, gold and other minerals per year for at least 10 years from about 112ha of land at Mananui, about 7km south of Hokitika.
The company is currently mining near Westport and is the owner of the Manahau barge which hit sandy ground during strong winds in August. The stranding is being investigated by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission.
A company spokeswoman said it expected the Manahau to be back in service in the third quarter of this year as replacement parts were taking several months to arrive.
“In the meantime, product is being trucked to Nelson and we have another shipment leaving this month,” she said.
The company’s application for the Mananui site says the mine will bring 70 well-paid jobs and $37.9 million to the West Coast economy every year.
The company asked the councils for the application to be publicly notified “due to the clear public interest”.
The site is next to State Highway 6, wetlands and forest and a Department of Conservation ecological reserve.
The application says the proposal will have no more than minor adverse effects on the environment and would have long term gains for biodiversity because three new wetlands would be created after the area was mined.
The proposal includes removing 4.2ha of fragmented remnant indigenous vegetation which the application says is of low quality due to pest and stock pressure.
The mining and processing will be carried out 24 hours a day for seven days a week. The consent is for 16 years with time for site development, mining and closure decommissioning and final rehabilitation.
The garnet and ilmenite will be trucked to the Greymouth port where it will be loaded onto the Manahau barge and transferred to a bulk export ship immediately off the coast to export globally. The site would see 70 truck and 165 light vehicle movements a day, equating to 515 equivalent car movements per day, the application says.
Once mining was complete, the land will be rehabilitated to pasture, and an ecological restoration area of more than 2ha of wetland and almost 5ha of new vegetation will be created along the Māhinapua wetland and creek. The company was proposing that more than 28ha of the land would eventually be vested with tangata whenua or the Crown in perpetuity for cultural and conservation purposes.
It said unnecessary noise generation would be minimised and noise limits would be adhered to. Native fish and lizards would be salvaged before mining and a water management strategy would result in negligible or unmeasurable ecological effects on the surrounding waterways.
It said the site has naturally occurring radionuclides in the heavy minerals to be excavated on site but well below the concentrations which would classify the material as radioactive and proposed consent conditions including monitoring radiation levels.
Westland Mineral Sands managing director Ray Mudgway said it was an “incredibly exciting time”.
“The Mananui project represents a significant milestone in our growth, and we are committed to applying environmentally responsible practices that have been honed through our successful pilot plant in Westport,” he said.
He said the company had engaged with iwi, residents, landowners, environmental groups, and local council leaders.
“We are also investing in the upgrade of the Port of Greymouth, boosting our capacity to support the expanding mineral sands operation, improving cargo movement, and enhancing regional infrastructure.”
The West Coast Regional Council has opened the application up to public submissions until April 2.