New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict: Difference between revisions

New Zealand: Mining in Schedule 4 Conflict (view source)

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 In 1997, the Act was amended to create an absolute mining prohibition on protected land. The amendment included a Section 61 preventing the Minister of Conservation from approving access arrangements for any Crown-owned land in Schedule Four (also newly created by the amendment). The amendment was successfully guided through parliament by a National-led government with wide cross-party support. Approximately 750,000 hectares was added to Schedule Four in 2008 and was criticised by the mining industry for lacking consultation and bypassing any comprehensive analysis of the conservation values of the land or its mineral potential<ref>Submission to Ministry of Economic Development on Schedule 4 stocktake, April 2010 http://www.coalnz.com/index.cfm/3,369,886/solid_energy_submission_lodged_on_schedule_4.pdf retrieved 3 May 2010</ref>.
-== Arguments for ==
+== Arguments in favour of opening up Schedule Four land for prospecting ==
 [[File:Gold production in New Zealand.jpg|thumb|left|Gold production in New Zealand]]
 The main parties in favour of prospecting for minerals on Schedule 4 land included the Government, the mining industry represented by Solid Energy and the Mining Industry Association, and Business New Zealand representing business interests in general. Their arguments were essentially economic and sought to play down any potentially adverse environmental impacts by referring to the limited scale of mining and the technology that could be used.
+Speaking at the same conference in 2009 where Brownlee made his first public statement on the possibility of opening up conservation land for mining, Murray Stevens, the chair of the New Zealand branch of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, lauded Brownlee’s intention to open up conservation for prospecting: “This will be a renaissance for the industry. New Zealand has finally got a government which wants to see development of the mineral sector in a sustainable fashion.” Stevens also started a refrain that was to be repeated by mining proponents over the following months and meant to allay the fears of environmentalists:  “The New Zealand mining sector has got an environmental record second to none in the world, which speaks for itself”<ref>Hartley, S. (2009). New era in mineral exploration. Otago Daily Times. Retrieved from http://www.odt.co.nz/news/business/71920/new-era-mineral-exploration</ref> Had audience members known about conditions at the Pike River coal mine on the West Coast of New Zealand’s South Island where 29 miners were killed the following year, they might have been forgiven for conflating with the country’s environmental record with its safety record and concluding that such a self-congratulatory tone was perhaps  somewhat misplaced.
 In supporting the idea of mining on Schedule 4 land, Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee talked about “the potential for utilising more of the country’s valuable natural resources for the greater good.” Brownlee proposed removing a total of 7,058 hectares of land from Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, including some areas in the Coromandel Peninsula and the Inangahua sector of Paparoa National Park, and which represented 0.2% of all Schedule 4 land (4.6m hectares in total). Of this, he suggested only 500 hectares might eventually be mined. “In fact, 500 hectares is smaller than what the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry describes as an average New Zealand sheep and beef farm (550 ha),” Brownlee stated.
-Noting that mining in New Zealand was already a NZ$2 billion industry which contributed to export receipts and government revenue, Brownlee emphasised the high productivity of the industry which created “an average of $360,000 of GDP per worker, nearly six times the national average”.
+As a trade-off for removing 7,058 hectares from Schedule Four, the Government said it planned to add 12,400 hectares to the protected category, providing a net gain in protected land of 5,342 hectares.
+While noting that mining in New Zealand was already a NZ$2 billion industry which contributed to export receipts and government revenue, Brownlee emphasised the high productivity of the industry which created “an average of $360,000 of GDP per worker, nearly six times the national average”.
 Citing earlier stocktakes undertaken for the Ministry of Economic Development, the Government estimated total mineral wealth throughout New Zealand to be worth NZ$194 billion<ref>Schedule 4 by the numbers, Ministry of Economic Development http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/71971/Schedule%204%20by%20the%20numbers.pdf retrieved 4 May 2011</ref>. Of this, NZ$80 billion or 40% was estimated to be in Schedule 4 land.
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 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>
-As a trade-off for removing the 7058 hectares from Schedule 4, the Government said it planned to add 12,400 hectares to the protected category.
+Commenting after the final decision was made about mining on Schedule Four land, Chris Baker, the chief executive of Straterra, the industry lobby group representing the mining and resource sector in New Zealand, took up the refrain first used by Murray Stevens that the mining today is green and could actually enhance the country’s clean and green image: “Done properly, the net environmental or conservation effect of mining can be and should be positive.”<ref> Baker, C. (2011). A mining industry view. Policy Quarterly, 7(1), 26-30</ref> Warming to this theme, Baker argued that the real threats facing Schedule Four land are pests and weeds, the eradication of which mining can contribute to. “Done properly, a by-product of mining could be much more conservation than can be afforded by government. It’s already happening. Seen this way, mining is more likely to enhance the New Zealand brand than detract from it.” The real problems on Schedule Four land inferred that New Zealanders were somehow confused over its true value; Baker stated that New Zealand did not know the “intrinsic” value of such land, although it appears from his comments that he was using the term in its financial rather than ethical or philosophical definition. A rigorous test of the economics involved in mining would demonstrate the benefit of opening up more protected areas for mineral extraction.
 == Arguments against ==