Government's Plan To Progress Waihī Mining Under Fast-track Legislation Attracts Support And Criticism

Thursday, 30 January 2025, 9:10 pm
Article: RNZ

Natalie Akoorie, Waikato senior reporter

The launch of the government's minerals strategy in Waihī has attracted criticism from a watchdog, who says the mining town - and others around the country - are being exploited for little reward.

But in the small town on the edge of the Coromandel Peninsula, where a gold mine was first established in the late 1800s, many of the residents are pro-mining.

"The mine provides the money that keeps this town alive," one woman said.

"I remember what happened the last time the mine shut down and it was pretty grim. It was like boarded up shop windows and the place was dead 'cos there was no money and no jobs."

The original Martha Underground mine closed in 1952 when gold prices were low and after extracting 5.6 million ounces of gold and 38.4 million ounces of silver.

It reopened as an open cast pit in 1988 when gold prices increased and was now operated by the New Zealand branch of international mining company OceanaGold, which bought it off American-owned Newmont Mining in 2016.

A proposal for expansion of the mining operations is being considered under Fast-track legislation.

Real estate agent Karen Tippett said expansion was a good thing for the town.

"Go for it. Just go for it. It was a mining town back then. It's still a mining town now.

"It doesn't affect me but it could affect me where it's going to go, but the mine should compensate them for that."

There were five operations at Waihī Gold; the Martha, Correnso, Favona and Trio underground mines, and the Martha Open Pit.

In December 2018 permits were granted allowing OceanaGold to tunnel under properties to the east of the open cast pit using access from the Favona mine.

OceanaGold was now proposing further development through the Waihī North and Martha Open Pit projects which it said would be hundreds of jobs to the region and produce billions of dollars of exports.

Long-time Waihī business-owner Noeline Dillimore said mining was positive for the town because of the benefits passed back into the community including scholarships with high school students.

However, Cambridge electrician Mark Dudfield, who works in Waihī, once worked at a mine in the Pilbara region of North West Australia, and said he had seen first-hand the impact of toxic waste from mining.

"The waste that comes from mining a site can be pretty horrible and pretty devastating to the land for many years afterwards."

He questioned where the profits of mining ended up and the trade off for towns like Waihī.

"A lot of the mining that does happen around New Zealand goes off-shore doesn't it - the money. It's American companies and what-not who do the mining and I feel like everyone probably needs to be a bit more aware of where that money goes.

"It's all well and good to say let's mine our beautiful places but if we're not actually reaping the rewards of it, like if we get a small percentage that looks good on the books but isn't really coming back into the country as it should be, then it's probably not worth it."

A resident who did not want to be named said his property would be severely impacted if OceanaGold's application to open another mine in the Waihī North project went ahead.

"If they buy the house great. If they don't - and they haven't really offered yet - it means we're going to have a hole here and a hole here and we're right in the middle."

The man said it had been hard to have a say on the situation.

"There's a big bully network in this town and it could affect my business.

"But there's not much we can do about it. They gave us a say but it was only like a Clayton's. We're just a small people and they're gonna do what they're gonna do."

Coromandel Watchdog chairperson Catherine Delahunty was worried the government's strategy around mining didn't protect the environment.

"It's purely about exploiting minerals, encouraging investment from overseas to take our resources and leaving us with toxic waste, but they're trying to sell this as a solution to our economic situation."

She was concerned about the Waihī North project which included a new underground mine at Wharekirauponga, under land administered by the Department of Conservation and accessed via a tunnel from Willows Rd.

"We were about to go to court this year at least with the company to scrutinise the application - all of that's gone because (the application is now under) Fast-track so there will be no hearings.

"Basically they will be leaving us with a huge legacy of toxic waste which no-one will want to talk about on Friday.

"It's about how rich we're all going to get, but funnily enough, we've had mining there for 30 years and it's still not a wealthy community."

Delahunty said her group would be in Waihī on Friday to protest when Resources Minister Shane Jones launched the Minerals Strategy of New Zealand and Critical Minerals' list.

RNZ asked Jones to respond to the criticisms but his office declined.

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