Subj : Mining company pushes for special West Coast coal zone
To   : All
From : News
Date : Fri Jun 14 2024 02:12 pm

By Brendon McMahon, Local Democracy Reporting
5:00am

The debate over proposed special mining areas on the West Coast is heating up
as those for and against air their views during a public hearing in Greymouth
this week.


The proposed combined district plan for the region - Te Tai o Poutini Plan -
will replace the West Coast's current three district plans from about late
2025.


The plan proposes an "enabling" approach for minerals extraction via proposed
special mining zones, while also managing the effects via rules under the
zones.


The region has some of the most intensively mined areas in New Zealand,
including the largest open-cast coal mine at Stockton, a burgeoning gold
mining sector, and a new mineral sand sector driven by international demand
from energy and technology sectors.


Stockton operator, Bathurst Resources Ltd and BT Mining Ltd, is in favour of
the proposed Buller Coal Zone within the Te Tai o Poutini Plan.


However, Forest and Bird and several other submitters oppose special mineral
zones, including the Buller Coal Zone, arguing mining can be managed within
other zoning provisions within the Te Tai o Poutini Plan on a case-by-case
basis.


On Wednesday, Bathurst legal counsel Christina Sheard told the hearing that
Stockton was key for the region.


The Buller Coal Zone would enable their rehabilitation of the area to
continue without the need to go through a separate land use consent regime
each time they needed to manage the site, she said.


Some of the existing consents for the site were due to expire in about three
years.


"It's such a complicated matrix of existing structures ... it's really
difficult and not practical to put a halt to these activities," Sheard said.


Stockton environment manager Campbell Robertson said they are rehabilitating
up to 20ha a year including planting about 500,000 plants per year under
their current coal licence permitted activity.


That rehabilitation work and its management would last for decades beyond any
mining activity.


"Our interest in the plateau is much greater than the Buller Coal Zone," he
said.


"What we are trying to emphasise here is that it is an existing operation. It
has been ongoing for a long time."


Robertson said the site was already covered by "a vast number" of separate
consents from the West Coast Regional Council regime, aside from the existing
Buller District Plan consent regime.


He told chief commissioner Dean Chrystal the range of consents and permits
for the area were very intertwined, from those issued by the district and
regional councils to the existing historic Coal Mining Licences via the Crown.


Robertson said the proposed coal zone encompassed key ancillary activities
allowed for mining.


Those activities included for road access and an aerial ropeway used to move
coal to a railhead at Ngakawau.


Robertson said the concerns raised by Ngakawau resident Mark Pitchfork that
his property could be affected by mining under the proposed Buller Coal Zone
were not warranted.


Pitchfork's property sits at the tip of a triangle of general rural zoned
land, surrounded by the proposed Buller Coal Zone near the Ngakawau railhead.


Robertson said that area of the proposed coal zone was for the existing
allowed ancillary activity under the coal licence for Stockton - namely the
access road near Pitchfork's property leading to the ropeway for maintenance
purposes.


"There is no coal, we're not mining, we just need access along that road.


"My understanding is it provides access to the terminal on the aerial
ropeway, so we need that for maintenance," Robertson said.


The hearing continues.


LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.

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