Business costs can’t increase to modernise DoC

The mining industry is encouraged to see Conservation Minister Tama Potaka say he aims to lower costs to businesses as the Department of Conservation (DoC) looks to modernise its processes, says Straterra chief executive Josie Vidal.

“In our submission on the discussion document Modernising conservation land management we note this important point, outlined in the foreword as one of the Minister’s two bottom lines,” Vidal says.

“There is no doubt the many layers of processes DoC has to provide access and concessions for the conservation estate needs modernising and we support this aim. However, there is a danger of over-simplifying and we have concerns about, and do not support, the proposed class approach to concessions. Instead, we prefer a case-by-case approach where each application is assessed on its overall merits.

“Getting a mine up and running is costly and business and miners already pay numerous charges for access arrangements and concessions. These include activity, management, and monitoring fees, industrial intrusion charges, and various other charges. This complicated and oblique charging system means that in aggregate, the payment miners make to the Government is substantial.

“There is a strong case for removing the requirement for concessions for mining operations. This could be achieved by allowing mineral permits to cover all land that is required for the mining and associated activities, such as roads and processing plants, and not just the mining of the mineral.

“We support more flexibility for the Government to exchange, transfer, or dispose of parcels of conservation land. This can benefit both miners and the DoC with enhanced conservation outcomes, as well as wider benefits for society.

“The conservation estate is one-third of New Zealand’s land and DoC doesn’t have the resources to manage that.

“Enabling land to be exchanged or disposed of can raise funds for conservation purposes (e.g. pest control) and/or ensure the land is being held by an owner best able to optimise the conservation value. Miners are often better placed than DoC to do this and miners on the conservation estate are engaged in pest control, kiwi breeding programmes, and other conservation projects.

“The aim of more flexible land exchange and disposal settings should be to support all Government priorities, including economic, while still providing a net conservation benefit and safeguarding vulnerable biodiversity.

“Mining tourism should be part of the enhanced tourism on conservation land goal in the discussion document. This would also help dispel the many myths and misinformation about mining on conservation land. There is already some mining tourism activity in New Zealand.

“We do not support giving the Minister of Conservation power to approve the National Conservation Policy Statement (NCPS) and area plans because of the risk of an ideologically driven minister rejecting perfectly acceptable uses of conservation land,” Vidal says.

Straterra is the industry association representing New Zealand’s minerals and mining sector. Its submission on proposals to modernise the conservation system is here.

Editors please note:

– Exploration and mining currently occurs on conservation land excluding National Parks and Schedule 4 land. The Government and industry are not seeking to change the current settings in relation to this.

– Mining on conservation land is infrequent and the footprint is small because mineral resources are hard to find and strict hurdles have to be navigated before approval to mine is given. Only about 3,500 hectares or 0.04% of the conservation estate has been disturbed by mining. This is after more than 40 years of mining on conservation land.

– Not all exploration on conservation land leads to mining as the exploration phase may rule out mining.

– The status quo works well where exploration and mining applications are considered on their merits against the conservation values of the land in question. This case-by-case approach is a more versatile and superior approach than one based on land categorisation because it doesn’t rule out potential opportunities before they are considered.