Mining industry angry with conservationists

Press, 4 July 1985, Page 6

Mining industry angry with conservationists

PA Auckland The mining industry has accused conservation groups of strangling mineral activity with emotive, mud-sling-ing campaigns. Members of the Mining and Exploration Association said that environmentalists had the ear of Government to chart a course which would finish off the industry as a growth sector and turn New Zealand into a scenic backwater. The association, meeting in Auckland this week, served notice that it was disgusted with what it called “the costly, timewasting antics of the conservation lobby” and claimed legal hurdles to exptoration were costing NewpZealand investors and foreign exchange.

Miners were not the polluting despoilers depicted by conservation groups, said the association. In fact, they were strongly committed to protecting the environment and were put through more hoops and regulations than any other resource industry. The 23-member association includes New Zealand’s biggest mining houses and the local arms of some of the world’s big multinationals. Members said that they expected to spend $l5 million on exploration and development in the next 12 months. They calculated New Zealand could earn $2OO million annually within five years from gold alone, compared with kiwifruit e'xyear worth sl£6 million.