Review of mine licences sought

Press, 24 August 1988, Page 8

Review of mine licences sought

PA Wellington The Maruia Society is seeking advice from its lawyers on the possibility of getting a High Court review of a Government decision to award licences for two open-cast coalmining projects.

The two mines are to be at the Fletcher Creek ecological reserve near Reefton. The director of the Maruia Society, Mr Guy Salmon, said the decision by the Minister of Conservation, Ms Clark, to consent to the licences again emphasised, the lack of clear principles in the Conservation Act, and the weakness of the National Parks and Reserves Authority, which had not even been consulted. “New Zealand parks and reserves are vulnerable to destructive mining on the basis of political whims,” he said. The mining would destroy part of the centrepiece of the reserve, a tiny 7ha remnant of forest that grows only on coal measures, he said.

“But what is more important is the extremely damaging precedent now established for open-cast mining and quarrying of reserves throughout New Zealand,” he said. The society recognised that there had been a coalmine at Fletcher Creek before the reserve was created, although the licence for that mine was about to expire. “We now find it will be allowed to extend operations into another catchment and mine Within the reserve for 20 years. This is an unprincipled decision. It seems to be a sorry attempt to appease critics of the Minister’s Monowai decision.” Mr .Salmon said the Minister's decision was contrary; to the recommendations of the Conservation Department, and represented another disaster for the department. “This situation is quite simply an invitation to other mining companies to come into reserves, but that situation must be chqjiged,” he said.