Nature does equal money
In response to your recent article outlining the Govt’s proposed mining of schedule 4 land, I cannot help but point out how nature gives NZ money without having to dig up the country to do so.
100% Pure? We pride ourselves on this, our agriculture and tourism industries use this to advertise their goods and our country to the rest of the world. Already we’ve gotten international slack from The Guardian and The New York Times for our poor performance on committing to reduce greenhouse gases and for our nasty unsustainable bottom-trawling fishing practices. The Manawatu is one of the dirtiest rivers in the western world according to our own Cawthron Institute. This is all before we start destroying tiny parts of New Zealand we kept sacred for their amazingly important conservation values. Imagine what the international community will think of little old clean green New Zealand when we destroy Kiwi habitats for coal. 100% Pure? Yeah Right!

Rob the Greenie

Dear Nexus
Recently there was an article published in the Nexus on mining schedule 4 lands. The schedule 4 lands are the jewels in the crown of our National Conservation estate. While mining is allowed in other areas of our conservation lands, the schedule 4 areas were set aside by the last National government (in the 1990’s) as being too precious to ever mine. The current National government is now seeking to take some of these jewels out of our crown.
It has been stated that there is $60 billion of minerals waiting to be dug in schedule 4 areas of our conservation estate. Ignoring the fact that the government got this figure from a report by a pro mining lobby group, the figures are very misleading. For example the government claims that there is over $4 billion of gold on Great Barrier Island, yet the latest geological survey of the Island says that there is only $1 billion of gold on the island.
While this still sounds like a lot of money if mining were to go ahead the majority of the profits will likely go to overseas investors. Solid Energy is the only large New Zealand mining company and they are currently restricted to coal mining. Gold and silver make up the bulk of the minerals the government is considering exploiting. The town of Waihi is literally sitting on not one but two Australian owned gold mines, yet it is one of the most socially deprived towns in New Zealand. The people of Waihi are poorer than most New Zealanders and are more likely to be unemployed, welfare dependent and have no qualifications than the average New Zealander. This is despite more than $200 million of gold coming out of the town a year.
While there may be minerals in the schedule 4 lands, the majority of our potential mineral sources lie outside of these lands. I worked as a geochemist one summer and have seen with my own eyes that at Benneydale there is still a significant quantity of coal that already has mine shafts etc. in place. Surely it would be more sensible to fully use existing sites such as Benneydale before considering setting up operation in places like Paparoa National Park, which is not only a popular tourist destination but also a haven for endangered native wildlife including the Weka.
Not only are the governments proposals for mining schedule 4 areas of our conservation estate environmentally destructive, they are also likely to have little economic benefit to the New Zealand people, while in the long term endangering our tourism industry. But more importantly it is unnecessary, most of our countries mineral wealth can be found outside of schedule 4 lands. Given all this why should we allow our National Parks to be dug up?
Nick Marryatt