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New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict: Difference between revisions
New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict (view source)
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Reiterating the estimate of thousands of billions of dollars in natural resources, Don Elder, the Chief Executive of Solid Energy, which is a major New Zealand resource company, stated that New Zealanders wanted “...good jobs and a high standard of living. Smart well-managed use of our natural resources, combined with a conservation fund to create long-term environmental gain will allow us to have both.”<ref>Solid Energy media release http://www.coalnz.com/index.cfm/1,468,1029,0,html/Government-s-consultation-on-maximising-New-Zealand-s-mineral-potential retrieved 4 May 2011</ref> | Reiterating the estimate of thousands of billions of dollars in natural resources, Don Elder, the Chief Executive of Solid Energy, which is a major New Zealand resource company, stated that New Zealanders wanted “...good jobs and a high standard of living. Smart well-managed use of our natural resources, combined with a conservation fund to create long-term environmental gain will allow us to have both.”<ref>Solid Energy media release http://www.coalnz.com/index.cfm/1,468,1029,0,html/Government-s-consultation-on-maximising-New-Zealand-s-mineral-potential retrieved 4 May 2011</ref> | ||
Tony Kokshoorn, the Grey District mayor on the West Coast of the South Island where coal mining has been a traditional mainstay of the local economy, viewed mining as a “win-win” situation for the country because of the environmentally friendly technology that was available and the income that would accrue to the government coffers. Referring to current mining operations, Kokshoorn said “you don’t see any mining if you drive the length of the West Coast…there’s such a vast area of rain forest that you wouldn’t notice if mining was happening…New Zealand is in the cart financially; if we want to have good health systems, if we want to have good education, we’ve got to tap into our mineral wealth as well”.<ref> Radio New Zealand interview, Kathryn Ryan Nine to Noon, Mining the conservation estate, 23 March 2010 http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets/audio_item/0005/2246495/ntn-20100323-0908-Mining_the_Conservation_Estate-m048.asx retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> | Tony Kokshoorn, the Grey District mayor on the West Coast of the South Island where coal mining has been a traditional mainstay of the local economy, viewed mining as a “win-win” situation for the country because of the environmentally friendly technology that was available and the income that would accrue to the government coffers. Referring to current mining operations, Kokshoorn said “you don’t see any mining if you drive the length of the West Coast…there’s such a vast area of rain forest that you wouldn’t notice if mining was happening…New Zealand is in the cart financially; if we want to have good health systems, if we want to have good education, we’ve got to tap into our mineral wealth as well”.<ref name="Ryan"> Radio New Zealand interview, Kathryn Ryan Nine to Noon, Mining the conservation estate, 23 March 2010 http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets/audio_item/0005/2246495/ntn-20100323-0908-Mining_the_Conservation_Estate-m048.asx retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> | ||
Professor Dave Craw, a geologist and environmental scientist from the University of Otago who has researched the environmental effects of mining, stated in a Radio New Zealand interview that there will always be environmental affects related to mining, although he did not think they posed any great environmental threat in the long-term. Professor Craw referred to the gold mine in Reefton on the West Coast where technology provided for the arsenic-bearing ore to be transported elsewhere in New Zealand for processing to mitigate any serious impact on the Reefton environment. “I think you can minimise environmental impact using modern technology and using the science.”<ref>Radio New Zealand interview, Kathryn Ryan Nine to Noon, Is mining on conservation land really off the agenda?, 20 July 2010 http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets/audio_item/0003/2353683/ntn-20100720-0908-Is_mining_on_conservation_land_really_off_the_agenda_-m048.asx retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> | Professor Dave Craw, a geologist and environmental scientist from the University of Otago who has researched the environmental effects of mining, stated in a Radio New Zealand interview that there will always be environmental affects related to mining, although he did not think they posed any great environmental threat in the long-term. Professor Craw referred to the gold mine in Reefton on the West Coast where technology provided for the arsenic-bearing ore to be transported elsewhere in New Zealand for processing to mitigate any serious impact on the Reefton environment. “I think you can minimise environmental impact using modern technology and using the science.”<ref>Radio New Zealand interview, Kathryn Ryan Nine to Noon, Is mining on conservation land really off the agenda?, 20 July 2010 http://static.radionz.net.nz/assets/audio_item/0003/2353683/ntn-20100720-0908-Is_mining_on_conservation_land_really_off_the_agenda_-m048.asx retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> | ||
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===Damage to the environment=== | ===Damage to the environment=== | ||
“New Zealand is blessed with magnificent landscapes, rich forests, and a unique biodiversity. We have a proud history of protecting these precious places and the species that rely on them for survival. Over many generations, New Zealanders have fought hard to protect our National Parks and other conservation areas… It is these wild and natural places, protected from development, that underpin our valuable 'clean green' image and our tourism industry's '100 % Pure' brand. To put this at risk is folly in the extreme.” This is what the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand web site said about New Zealand’s unique nature in opposition to the proposal to mine on Schedule 4 land<ref name=Green>The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Submission Guide: Mining in Schedule 4 | “New Zealand is blessed with magnificent landscapes, rich forests, and a unique biodiversity. We have a proud history of protecting these precious places and the species that rely on them for survival. Over many generations, New Zealanders have fought hard to protect our National Parks and other conservation areas… It is these wild and natural places, protected from development, that underpin our valuable 'clean green' image and our tourism industry's '100 % Pure' brand. To put this at risk is folly in the extreme.” This is what the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand web site said about New Zealand’s unique nature in opposition to the proposal to mine on Schedule 4 land<ref name=Green>The Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand Submission Guide: Mining in Schedule 4 http://www.greens.org.nz/takeaction/submissionguides/submission-guide-mining-schedule-4</ref>. | ||
[[File:Old gold workings, St. Bathans, Otago, New Zealand.jpg|thumb|Old gold workings, St. Bathans, Otago, New Zealand]] | [[File:Old gold workings, St. Bathans, Otago, New Zealand.jpg|thumb|Old gold workings, St. Bathans, Otago, New Zealand]] | ||
Referring to historical efforts to protect the environment, Green Party co-leader and MP, Metiria Turei, told a crowed demonstrating against the Government’s proposal outside parliament buildings that “it was the people who created Schedule 4 and protected those places, and it will be the people who save Schedule 4 and those treasured places, and that’s you.”<ref>A montage of a mining protest that was held outside Wellington parliament on 30 March 2010, YouTube, 1m 49sec -1min 58sec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57ZrtGfnL0 retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> Another speaker at the same event stated that the mining proposal “touches our identity as a country. This is not a country that mines its most treasured places, it is not a country that mines its national parks. It’s who we are, it’s what we believe in, it’s why we’re proud to be clean and green….The economy is not based on mining, it is based on looking after the land”<ref>A montage of a mining protest that was held outside Wellington parliament on 30 March 2010, YouTube, 2m 28sec -2min 36sec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57ZrtGfnL0 retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> | Referring to historical efforts to protect the environment, Green Party co-leader and MP, Metiria Turei, told a crowed demonstrating against the Government’s proposal outside parliament buildings that “it was the people who created Schedule 4 and protected those places, and it will be the people who save Schedule 4 and those treasured places, and that’s you.”<ref>A montage of a mining protest that was held outside Wellington parliament on 30 March 2010, YouTube, 1m 49sec -1min 58sec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57ZrtGfnL0 retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> Another speaker at the same event stated that the mining proposal “touches our identity as a country. This is not a country that mines its most treasured places, it is not a country that mines its national parks. It’s who we are, it’s what we believe in, it’s why we’re proud to be clean and green….The economy is not based on mining, it is based on looking after the land”<ref>A montage of a mining protest that was held outside Wellington parliament on 30 March 2010, YouTube, 2m 28sec -2min 36sec http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W57ZrtGfnL0 retrieved 3 May 2011</ref> | ||
The specific long-lasting environmental hazards of mining were focused on by Dennis Teag of the Coromandel Watchdog Group NGO. He said the mining industry liked to talk about the benefits of mining but rarely alluded to the drawbacks, including the very real environmental issue of tailings dams where millions of tons of toxic waste has to be stored in a containment facility forever.<ref name="Ryan" | The specific long-lasting environmental hazards of mining were focused on by Dennis Teag of the Coromandel Watchdog Group NGO. He said the mining industry liked to talk about the benefits of mining but rarely alluded to the drawbacks, including the very real environmental issue of tailings dams where millions of tons of toxic waste has to be stored in a containment facility forever.<ref name="Ryan" /> The cost of cleaning up if they go wrong was incredibly large, such as the $17.5m required to remediate the damage incurred at the Tui copper, lead and zinc mine on the western slopes of Mount Te Aroha in the Kaimai Range of New Zealand and considered to be the most contaminated site in the country. It was abandoned in the 1970s but Teag claimed the remedial work would probably not be effective anyway. | ||
[[File:Coromandel Peninsula Panorama.jpg|thumb|Coromandel Peninsula Panorama]] | [[File:Coromandel Peninsula Panorama.jpg|thumb|Coromandel Peninsula Panorama]] | ||