THE PRESS MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1981. Mining law amendments

Press, 10 August 1981, Page 16

THE PRESS MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1981. Mining law amendments

The Mining Act gives small opportunity to people affected by an applicaton for a mining licence to oppose the application or to have conditions laid upon a licence. The law also lacks any clear statement that environmental and other considerations should be taken into account when the Minister decides whether to grant or withhold a licence. Public concern about such inadequacies of the act was stirred by a noticeable increase in interest in the country’s mineral resources and in actual exploration and prospecting. Conservationists and farmers, among others, woke up to how easy it is, under the 1971 act, to secure prospecting and mining licences and under them wreak major, not always desirable, changes on the landscape. In face of growing concern that exploitation of mineral resources was being given, under the act, precedence over almost all other land uses or values, the Government had little choice but to amend the act. The Mining Amendment Bill goes some way towards meeting the more serious shortcomings of the present act. One of its most important provisions is the elimination of the virtually automatic right of the holder of a prospecting licence to obtain a mining licence. Most people want to comment on, or to object to, proposals to mine, though their concern about prospecting might be slight. A change in the law was needed to ensure opportunities to make submissions on particular proposals. These opportunities are now provided both when a local authority advertises that an application for a mining licence has been made and when the Planning Tribunal invites objections to an application of which it has been notified by the Minister. If the bill is passed, the Planning Tribunal will make the final decision on any objections lodged against the granting of mining privileges. The bill also spells out what the Minister must have regard for when considering a mining licence, thus giving a legal basis for objections on environmental or social grounds.

Not everyone is happy with the amendment bill. The president of the Mineral Exploration Association has said that the proposals amount to the Government’s saying that it does not want mining in New Zealand, and that the bill is a complete victory for environmentalists. No hard evidence has been advanced to show that exploration for minerals will diminish or that companies will be discouraged from continuing to prospect because of the bill. The bill may temporarily scare off some risk capital needed to sustain mineral exploration and prospecting. If this happens, it will have to be treated as one of the costs of environmental protection.

By sparing mining companies the public hostility that they have been incurring because public opposition to their activities has not been given a proper vent, the amendment bill is equally likely to set mineral exploration and prospecting on a sounder footing and make it more attractive to investors. Mineral prices will influence a company’s decisions far more than the nature of the Mining Act. The Government has not, in fact, given conservationists and others who sought more safeguards on prospecting and mining everything they wanted. Prospecting and mining remain outside the provisions of the Town and Country Planning Act and are not subject, like other land uses, to that act’s stricter provisions for public hearings of appeals. It remains relatively easy, under the amendments, for mining companies to secure prospecting licences, even though they will have to accompany applications for a prospecting licence with an environmental assessment. The Minister will be able to require companies to take steps to prevent damage to areas of scientific, wildlife, fishing, or historic interest, or of special visual appeal. This will inhibit some mining activity, but it will hardly wreck the plans of all profitable mining.

One of the major concerns of those who have been pressing for changes to the Mining Act is that these amendments still fail to provide a clear statutory definition of prospecting, which can include the use of earth-moving machinery, heavy drilling equipment, and explosives. In spite of this view; the stronger control over prospecting may prove to be sufficient to ensure that environmental and social values are respected when prospecting proceeds. The Government's stated goal is to encourage the mining industry while at the same time imposing adequate environmental safeguards on the various activities of mining companies. Although the amendments provide an adequate framework for the imposition of such safeguards, the mining companies can reassure themselves that in the background remains the National Development Act which gives the Government a final power to shoulder aside any restrictions which might impede the development of important resources.

At the same time conservationists and others have some assurance that the Minister will have to feel himself on exceptionally strong ground before he enables a scheme to proceed against the recommendation of the Planning Tribunal. When the select committee considers the biil it must, in fairness to all parties, consider it in the light of other legislation which could affect or over-ride its provisions.