Mining Company has Old Rights

Forest and Bird, Issue 302, 1 November 2001, Page 20

Mining Company has Old Rights

OMYA NZ Ltd, a |00-percent Swiss-owned company, has a 21-year mining licence for dolomite on Mt Burnett. It was issued by the former New Zealand Forest Service in 1985 and expires on February 14, 2006. This licence allows mining on 136 hectares of Mt Burnett. Because the agreement predates the more recent Conservation and Crown Minerals Acts, DoC’s power is restricted to agreeing to proposed mining work-plans and negotiating weed control and revegetation trials. Unlike the more-recent Crown Minerals Act 1991, the Mining Act 1971 does not require OMYA to pay compensation to DoC, to offset the loss of conservation values. If and when a new licence, or an extension to the current licence area is sought, then the newer Conservation Act and Crown Minerals Act will be applied. Currently, OMYA is requesting an extension outside its mining licence into an area designated as Forest Park buffer zone, for use as a ‘turning elbow’. This area has all but two of the special dolomite plants — and straddles a nationally unparalleled geology where dolomite rock meets nearby coal measures. The turning area would also allow access to an eighth bench, up-slope of the quarry for which OMYA has also submitted plans. This area presently supports the remaining dolomite forest. Dave Martin, chairman of OMYA, was sketchy when asked about an eighth bench, ‘There's probably an eighth bench on the planning, but whether it gets used is anybody's guess. It would be normal quarry planning, but you may not actually activate it for quite a long time — who knows, you may be talking 50 or 100 years. We don't know what the demand is going to be like in three or four years time. Because the eighth-bench application is within the current mining area, again DoC’s powers are limited — unless access to the area, via the proposed turning elbow in the Forest Park, is denied. The Minister of Conservation will soon make that decision.