Hauraki/Coromandel residents challenge miners and Government on Karangahake mountain

Local people from Karangahake and other parts of the Hauraki/Coromandel are today challenging miners from the 2018 AusIMM (Australia Institute of Metallurgy and Mining) NZ Branch Annual Conference who have come to Karangahake to promote gold mining in the Department of Conservation land.

Locals are peacefully protesting at the New Talisman mine site in the forest and challenging the miners at the entrance to the Windows recreational area. The old mine site is under development for mining but there are no workers there at the weekends.

“ We are here to tell the mining industry they cannot mine in this forest and to call on the Government to urgently implement their promise to extend protection of the DOC lands as far south as Te Aroha. Right now the protection from mining on DOC land only applies to the northern Hauraki, Labour and the Greens have promised to extend it, with the Minister for the Environment repeating this last weekend at the Environment Conservation Organisations of New Zealand annual conference in Napier” says Watchdog Co- ordinator Augusta Macassay Pickard.

Around a dozen people, including former Green MP Catherine Delahunty are occupying the mine portal and police have been called.

“These people are on public land, doing their duty to conservation. The mining industry have more rights than the local community and the many thousands of visitors who are being blocked from this area so a foreign mining company can try and set up a gold mine on the heart of the mountain. The mining industry conference came here today to promote this area for mining; we have been proud to tell them loud and clear that toxic gold mining is unacceptable here. We urge the Government to action their promise of protection .

“The peaceful protests will continue in this region until toxic gold mining is stopped and the area is added to Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act which protects land from mining” Ms Maccasy Pickard said.

***ENDS***

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