Mining

Press, 20 October 1987, Page 12

Mining

Sir,—J. M. MacPherson (October 16) seems to argue that, because New Zealand has very few examples of severe environmental damage caused by mining, such damage will never occur. But all it proves is that we have been lucky to escape extensive hardrock mining. If such mining does occur here then, the spoil, flooding, poisons and disruptions caused overseas by. such large-scale mines will inevitably occur here. Our clean environment exists because we have escaped such mining, not because such mining is harmless. My "overseas horror stories”

r. have not been denied; MarcZuckerman opposes mining in national parks, but not in forest parks, which have another legal' status. Surely the important ques-' tion is an area’s quality, not the technicality of its legal status. If an area is as important as NorthWest Nelson Park, why support mining there simply because it is legally possible? After all, mining Is legally possible in national parks, too. Mining’s privileged legal status must be removed.— Yours, etc., D. J. ROUND. ■■■;s October 16, 1987, Sir,—P. Barrett (October 15) takes the pious stance that mining is the cause of all the troubles in the world, including holes in the ozone layer, etc. I will wager that she or he cannot live for six months without using or living in something derived from mines. As for mining on the West Coast, it is a fact that, subject to the stringent conditions imposed on mining, there is little fear that the environment here or elsewhere will be upset—Yours, etc., AFTON BLACKADDER. October 15, 1987.