One detained by police as mine activists settle in ‘for the long haul’

Monday, 21 April 2025

Activists attempt to close down Stockton coal mine.

A protest to interrupt work at a Bathurst Resources mine on the West Coast has seen police detain one person, a trespass notice issued and activists vow to stay put.

A group of about 50 protesters are camping at the Escarpment mine site on the Denniston plateau in opposition to a fast-track approval application by mining company Bathurst Resources to extend its Stockton mine, north of Westport.

They argue it is public conservation land and they have a right to access it.

In the pre-dawn darkness and rain on Monday, 25km away six other protesters scaled pylons of a 2.5km aerial ropeway, used to carry coal from Stockton mine to Ngakawau, where it is loaded onto trains for export via Lyttelton Port.

Four of the activists clambered into large coal buckets in an effort to halt coal being taken from the site. Twelve other protesters were on the ground below them to support.

Protesters on a coal cable car that carries coal from Stockton mine on the West Coast.

Late on Monday morning, Bathurst Resources’ export operations general manager Ian Harvey, flanked by police, issued the activists with a formal trespass warning, asking them to leave the site and barring them from returning for two years.

But Adam Currie, one of those in the coal buckets, said the protesters remained defiant.

“We’re here for the long haul,” he said.

Harvey said mine crews were still working on the site and could get the coal out of the mine. However, if protesters remained in the buckets into Monday night, exports could be delayed.

“There has been no disruption at this point. [The coal buckets] were due to be running tonight but they probably won’t be,” he said early on Monday afternoon.

Members of two groups - Climate Liberation Aotearoa and 350 Aotearoa - are involved in the protest action.

Bathurst Resources said in a statement it was concerned for the health and safety of the “trespassers”.

“On Easter Sunday Bathurst became aware of issue-motivated persons trespassing the Escarpment mine site,” it said.

An activist walks beside a fence at the Stockton mine early on Monday morning.

“We have also learned this morning of unauthorised access to the nearby Stockton mine infrastructure at Ngakawau. Our primary concern is for the health and safety of the trespassers at these sites, due to [the] presence of principal hazards at both of these mining operations, of which persons who have entered the site illegally may not be aware.”

The conservation land within the mining permit for the Escarpment mine is formally closed to the public under the Conservation Act due to the presence of hazards, it said.

Police, WorkSafe and the Department of Conservation - the landowner of the Escarpment mine - have been notified.

Protesters are concerned that a major expansion of Bathurst’s West Coast operations will destroy native flora and fauna.

“Bathurst representatives have formally trespassed these individuals and will continue working with New Zealand Police on the next steps to secure the health and safety of the trespassers as soon as possible.”

Late on Monday afternoon police detained one of the protesters on the ground below the coal buckets. A statement said: “One person has been taken into custody, with charges being considered.”

Issuing the formal trespass notice directly to the protesters, Harvey warned of health and safety risks at the mine site.

In a video shared online, he said the group needed to leave and where they were was not public land.

“The police, they’re here, and they will request to have you forcibly removed,” he said.

Activists scale pylons to climb into coal buckets and shut down the Stockton coal mine north of Westport.

He warned them to stay off the Stockton mine, Ngakawau site, Denniston escarpment where the group were camping and the Cascade mine for two years.

“Even parts of DOC land that we’re on we’ve got the right to trespass you,” he said.

The company aims to extend the life of the near-depleted mine for another 25 years, employ 390 people and mine 20 million tonnes of coking coal over that period for export.

Currie said the supporters at the bottom of the ropeway were read the trespass notice, but they argued they were on public property.

Adam Currie at a proposed mine site on the Denniston plateau.

Earlier, he said: “We’ll be staying out as long as we can. We’re not doing this lightly … we're prepared to get arrested today.

“We’ll do whatever it takes. I’d really rather not be here. I’d rather not be arrested but … if the one thing I do this decade is help stop this coal mine from happening, it will be a success for me.”

He said they used climbing equipment and brought food and a tarpaulin to keep dry from the rain.

Speaking to The Press while inside one of the coal buckets on Monday morning, Currie said: “It’s really not particularly comfy. It’s really not a nice place to be, but this is the only way we can stop this climate-killing coal from getting out of this mine.

“What can we do, other than sit here in this wet, cold bucket? I’m with my friend right next to me taking action together, and we will stay here as long as it takes until we’ve sent a really clear message so they know that if they try to proceed with their dodgy climate-killing plans, we will oppose them at every step of the way.”

The buckets and aerial ropeway take coal down from the mine to trains for export.

In October the Government released a list of 149 projects it wanted to help fast-track for consideration as an alternative to lodging resource consent applications with local authorities and public consultation.

Zenith Rose-Wills camps at a proposed mine site on the Denniston plateau.

Currie claimed Bathurst’s proposed expansion would allow the mining of 20 million tonnes of coal, which equated to 56 million tonnes of emissions.

He said the fast-track application process undermined Te Tiriti and democracy.

The protesters say the new mine would destroy the area and the habitat for native animals living there, including kiwis, rare lizards and snails.

But Minerals West Coast manager Patrick Phelps said the protesters were exaggerating the climate impact of the mine expansion.

He claimed coal produced only between 5% and 7% of New Zealand’s carbon emissions, and if the mine did not expand, steel producers would just source the coal from other parts of the world.

“People have a democratic right to protest but they don’t have the right to stop others from going about their lawful business. Whether they stopped mine production today or it was closed anyway because of a public holiday I don’t know,” he said.

Currie said the protest was in opposition to Bathurst’s application to build a road from Stockton to reopen its mothballed mine site at Denniston and extend the mine’s footprint.

“This is a really special place with unique species found nowhere else. They started mining this really precious area and destroyed a lot, but the new mine would be far, far bigger and it would destroy the native habitat of kiwis, rare lizards, snails.”

Protester Rosie Cruickshank, 20, a student from Dunedin, said the Stockton protesters did not want the coal to be exported.

“We really want to make a strong stand and tell Bathurst that the industry and the expansion of this industry - that what they're going to be doing here in Denniston - is not OK. It’s not what we support. It's not what we need to have a sustainable, liveable future.”

She said there were enough fossil fuels that had already been mined to support a just transition away from “complete environmental devastation”.

“The opening and expansion of coal mines is just unreasonable and there's huge resistance to that.”

In 2020, Bathurst said the life of the mine was about five years without expansion.

Its latest annual report says Stockton employs about 350 people and another 75 full time contractors. Stockton produces high-quality coal for export to steel-making customers in Japan, India and South Korea and provides $28m a year in wages.