Mining may be approved for Coast reserves

Press, 26 May 1979, Page 7

Mining may be approved for Coast reserves

Wellington reporter

Prospecting and mining, with appropriate safeguards, may be permitted in the ecological and facility reserves proposed for the West Coast, according to the report of the officials Committee on West Coast Reserves. Under the Mining Act, 1971, issue of a prospecting licence implies a right to mine as well, except in the special case of National Parks. The legislation would have to be amended if this “no automatic right to mine” clause embraced ecological and facility reserves as well. The introduction of such an amendment might be seen by mining interests as another barrier to investment in prospecting, and has been opposed by the Mines Division of the Ministry of Energy.

All State forest land is open for mining at present in terms of the Mining Act. However, before the Minister of Energy may grant any prospecting or mining licence, the Minister of

Forests must give his consent. He may withhold consent, or give it subject to certain conditions. Anyone holding a prospecting licence under the Mining Act has a right to be granted one mining licence for as much as 400 ha within the area of the prospecting licence without additional public notice or consent. In consenting to the prospecting licence, the Minister of Forests may determine that the right to mine does not apply to any specified area within the prospecting licence area. If the Minister does exclude some part of the prospecting area from mining and the holder of the prospecting licence wants to mine in that area, he would have to apply to do so by public notification and get the consent of the Ministers of Energy and Forests before a mining licence could be issued. A prospecting licence could be granted over an area o f up to 4000 ha, but not more than 400 ha could be included within any one mining licence. In practice, most mining

licences cover areas of much less than 400 ha. In the light of the provisions of the mining legislation, the Officials Committee said that prospecting and mining (with appropriate safeguards) could be permitted in the proposed ecological and facility reserves.

However, because of the special values to be protected in ecological areas and, to a lesser extent, in facility areas, the committee said that any prospecting licences consented to should be subject to a condition that, before mining proceeded, a detailed feasibility study would have to be prepared for joint assessment by the Ministers of Energy and Forests. This would be after public comment had been received on the environmental impact of the proposal, if appropriate. The study would have to cover, among other things, engineering design, infrastructure, waste disposal, and market aspects of the proposal, and would also

incorporate a full environmental impact evaluation, which might be released for public comment. The committee was at pains to emphasise that a mining project would have to be very important to get a licence. Because of the scope of study required to satisfy this feasibility condition, only a raining project in the national interest should be considered by the Ministers, the officials committee said.