‘Community gutted’ as sand mine consent granted, opposing group says

Monday, 29 April 2024

Consents to operate a sand mine in Barrytown on the West Coast have been granted, but an opposing group of locals are considering whether they have grounds to appeal.

A group set up to oppose a sand mine on the West Coast says the community is “gutted” it has been granted resource consent.

Western Australian mining firm Barrytown JV’s application for an open cast sand mineral mine at Barrytown near Greymouth was declined in February 2022 after commissioners said the application lacked information.

While the mine will operate 24/7, trucks will travel to and from the mine in daylight hours, and not on Sundays. However, locals are hoping restrictions will be extended to Saturdays and public holidays.

The company has since registered in New Zealand and changed its name to TiGa Minerals and Metals and lodged new consents to mine 4.8m tonnes of minerals like garnet, ilmenite, zircon and gold from 63ha over a 12-year period, construct a processing plant and for an average of 50 truck movements per day to go between the site and Greymouth or Westport.

Coast Road Resilience Group chairperson Laksmi Crick said she was disappointed the independent commissioners unanimously granted consents sought from the Grey District and West Coast Regional councils.

“We are all gutted. We feel like we gave it our best shot. The majority of the community along the haulage route were against it. They have no social licence to operate so we are disappointed,” she said.

She said around 200 submitters opposed the consent applications, including the Director General of the Department of Conservation.

Crick’s group would now digest the 186-page decision and take stock of whether it had grounds to appeal.

She said the group had always considered an Environment Court appeal as a “possible trajectory”.

The commissioners imposed 30 pages of conditions on the mine, which she said had changed as a result of the robust process the group had been part of.

The mine will support 57 direct employees and a further 80 indirect jobs, boosting Grey District employment by 2%.

Although the mine will operate 24/7, trucking to and from the mine would only operate during daylight hours and not at night or on Sundays. However, she had hoped it would be also restricted on Saturdays and public holidays as well to give locals “respite”.

“Despite the recommendations of council and biodiversity experts the commissioners didn’t agree to a 100m set back from the wetland. They only have to be 20m away so that’s disappointing and they don’t think the affect on tourism will be more than minor. Time will tell,” she said.

TiGa Minerals & Metals Ltd managing director Robert Brand said the company welcomed the decision.

“This is great news, and not just for TiGa and its investors, who include West Coast entrepreneurs who wanted to mine this significant garnet and ilmenite resource 20 years ago,” he said.

“It is also a real boost for the local and regional economy, which needs the economic strength that comes from diversification of industry and broadened employment opportunities.”

Brand said TiGa thanked the community for its involvement in the consent process.

“TiGa carefully considered local issues and adapted our proposed operation to mitigate concerns raised throughout the process. We look forward to continuing to work with the community going forward, which we will facilitate through our promised community liaison group.”

Brand said the company would now work through the decision, acknowledging that there was a period now, where a submitter could appeal the consent decision to the Environment Court.

The mine is close to a breeding colony of New Zealand’s only remaining mainland Petrel, the Westland Petrel or Tāiko.

The decision says the mine site is surrounded by significant natural heritage and a complex array of ecological relationships as well as human activities on the Barrytown Flats.

The Barrytown Flats are also notable for being close to the colonies and within the flight path of New Zealand’s only remaining mainland Petrel, the Westland Petrel or Tāiko. When fledglings leave the nest they become disoriented by light and crash-land on to road, where they are often severely injured, struck by cars or eaten by predators.

The decision says the company provided a mine lighting plan, which included not operating during hours of darkness and having no windows in its processing plant. It would also have monitoring cameras and conduct predator control.

It says the company would mine 3ha at a time on a site which had a complex hydrology of interconnected groundwater, surface water, and wetland systems.

“The proposed water management system would manage the temporary hydrological effects on wetlands of that activity comfortably,” it says.

The materials recovered would be trucked towards Greymouth, either to a railway at Rapahoe or Stillwater, for export at Timaru port.

It will support 57 direct employees paid a combined total of $6.6m a year and a further 80 indirect jobs, boosting Grey District employment by 2%. Export revenue would be about $63m a year, equivalent to 37.8% of the Grey District’s total exports.