Brash favours mining push

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Crown eyes lucrative mineral potential of conservation estate

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Doing more to exploit New Zealand's natural resources is an important step towards catching up with Australia's economic performance, says Don Brash, chairman of the 2025 Taskforce looking into New Zealand's productivity.

Brash told the Independent he favours streamlining mining applications in New Zealand and says a 1998 World Bank study found New Zealand was second only to Saudi Arabia in terms of natural resources per capita. Our high ranking was credited mostly to the  availability of crop and pasture land, but  also noted our mineral resource wealth.

The taskforce was set up to investigate reasons for the decline in New Zealand's productivity in recent years, and recommend ways to bring it into line with Australia by 2025.

"There will have been some changes in both countries in terms of what we know about our natural resources [since 1998], but it is simply not true that we are desperately short of raw materials," says Brash.

Additionally, New Zealand has the world's largest salt-water fisheries and relatively abundant fresh-water resources  resources not covered by the World Bank study. By contrast, Australia is particularly conscious of its lack of abundant fresh water.

"I would focus on the land and water and what we can do with that. I would focus on the fisheries,  forestry, coal and iron sands, and almost certainly other minerals that we have not yet exploited. It is widely believed that we have some significant gold resources in parts of the [Department of Conservation] estate and, in principle, there is no good reason  we can't extract that."

Brash has an ally in the New Zealand Minerals Industry Association, which commissioned a 2008 report into the possible economic benefit of expanded mining activity. The report cited GNS Science research which estimated the value of metals deposits at about $140 billion at 2008 prices.

While the report found mineral extraction in the form of oil, gas, coal and gold  contributes about $4.5b per year and $2b per year in exports, it concluded that the  mining industry was relatively small  in relation to New Zealand  mineral wealth. This was because regulatory conditions and the fragmented administration of mining rights make New Zealand an unattractive investment option  compared to Australia or Canada.

The report was critical of the fact that 70 per cent of our mineral deposits sit under Crown land. DOC, which has no mandate to manage mineral resources, controls access to minerals in the public estate.

But Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei says this is precisely the point of the department. Unsurprisingly, she opposes any move to adjust the balance between conservation and the economic use of the Crown estate to include more potential mining activities. The current balance that focuses on public access and recreation, with some allowance for mining or power generation, is sufficient, she says.

Besides, Turei believes focusing on mineral extraction is "19th-century thinking" and misses the point on the true value proposition of public estate land. That includes tourism, a possible carbon sequestration industry, and long-term benefits in the form of flood protection, clean water and biodiversity

Any analysis that misses these benefits is a failure, she says.

Such opposition is unlikely to stop Brash and his fellow taskforce members from  considering expanding mining opportunities. He believes a  balance can be struck because modern mining practice does not necessitate the "rape and pillage" approach to mining seen in past decades.

- © Fairfax NZ News