Plug pulled on Golden Bay mining
BILL MOORE
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Greywolf Resources has bowed to public pressure and announced that it is ditching its Golden Bay mining applications.
Newly appointed New Zealand chief executive John Rutherford has issued a statement saying that the applications for prospecting and exploration within the Golden Bay and Abel Tasman areas will be withdrawn.
Mr Rutherford, a Christchurch lawyer and ironsands mining advocate who joined the Greywolf board "a month or two" ago, said the Australian company had met with considerable public opposition in the Nelson region.
"It is pointless Greywolf putting millions of dollars into the area to find out what is there, if the public are so opposed to it."
He said the decision was based on further investigation of existing area reports and "the company's genuine interest to ensure the concerns of local iwi and community are considered".
"As part of the process, the company took the time to meet, listen to and understand the concerns of local iwi and endeavoured to work through the issues they raised but it is clear that the general public are simply not ready for this type of activity," he said.
"If the company is to reconsider exploration in this area, the New Zealand Government will need to get the people of New Zealand to agree to exploration."
Greywolf's applications, which covered coal, oil and gas and other minerals, caused consternation among Golden Bay iwi and environmentalists and a public meeting planned for Friday in Takaka was expected to draw a large crowd.
Mr Rutherford said Crown Minerals (recently renamed New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals) had been reorganised and it might take time for the withdrawal of the applications to show up on the website.
Mr Rutherford said his first contact with Greywolf chief executive Edward Lancaster was "a matter of months" ago.
"He has approached me because of my mining connections."
Asked about Mr Lancaster's credentials as a mining company leader, he said: "He hasn't realised that the scenario in New Zealand is different – and that's why they've brought me on board."
He said the company was "just in its very early stages".
"You won't know whether it's going to be reputable until such time as it gets some permits. Otherwise it will fade away like an old soldier."
Other permit applications, including one for offshore oil and gas exploration far distant from the Golden Bay coastline, would continue, he said.
In a statement overnight, Mr Lancaster said the Greywolf board had asked him to "take a step back from New Zealand" to work on Greywolf's applications to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and the Australian Stock Exchange for a sharemarket listing later this year.
He said an internet listing on the Alibaba website seeking investors to buy 100 million $1 shares in Greywolf had "nothing to do with our company".
The listing, which talks of gold and platinum reserves being found during logging operations in Fiji, includes Mr Lancaster's name as the point of contact.
It was reported in the Mail last week and Mr Lancaster said, "we only found out about it after reading your article". Greywolf was seeking the listing's removal, he said.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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This is fantastic news.
Whatever argument could have been made for job creation or profits for New Zealand was always going to be overshadowed by the huge risk to our pristine and irreplaceable environment.
@ Steve - What makes you think this is the work of ‘great unwashed’? From what I can tell it has been mostly from middle class employed people who value the natural environment over money for oil.
@ jman - I believe you have already been adequately rebutted but I will add my voice as an employed "greenie".
@ Paul 2.0 - Try – “Fantastic – We can keep our unique and beautiful wild places and those greedy corporate oil raiders can perhaps begin to realise that people have had enough of risking everything for some fleeting mineral profits".
@ AB - Some Mining might be OK. But never anywhere near our national parks and (in my opinion at least) never in the form of drilling for oil. If there is even a remote possibility of a disaster like the Deepwater Horizon spill happening then we don’t want it anywhere near NZ.
@ gaza - I would rather my children worked as kayak guides, biologists or nature photographers than as miners or oil drillers.
The power of the social network is clear – we must continue to use it as a force for good.
Giving access to this sort of resource is one question, who we give it to is another all together. Greywolf Resources has little substance to them and appointment of John Rutherford proves it....
another opportuity lost thnks to the narrow minded few who think they know whats best for all of us.watch your kids dissapear over the hill for jobs,for you have blown it here for them,AGAIN.
Brilliant!
A great result, they can keep their money grubbing hands off our precious resources.
As for those who oppose this outcome, the "great unwashed tree hugging hippy" response is a clear indication of your complete ignorance in most areas of life.
Yet another nail in the coffin that is NZ....When are we going to stop listening to these ill-informed, anti-progressive factions of our population. As was clearly stated during that Schedule 4 circus, mining affects a very small footprint and can functionally co-exist within our so-called clean-green image. Being a part of the mining industry, an educated New Zealander and a conservationist, I unequivocally agree that NZ can sustain an increased mining sector, which will benefit all sectors of our economy.....even those on the dole that oppose such activities.
yee haw - I done can keep my straw hat and them dang cityfolk n' money can git off and pay dem taxes in that there Australia ..
This is fantastic news!
jman #4 2:24pm what a surprise. and all the greenies can go back to their treetops and keep living off the dole. ^Implying that most greenies are on the dole - WRONG!
A great victory against (amongst other things) the uninformed masses of National voters in this country who fail to understand that cleantech is the way forward.
what a surprise. and all the greenies can go back to their treetops and keep living off the dole.
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Sustainability, is something that most people hear on a day to day basis yet avoid as a creed for some reason unbeknownst to me.
I can't comprehend how anyone who has a child or wishes to bring a child into this world would agree with the creation of new jobs for the now over a sustainable environment for the future. It's as simply as that really, is it worth polluting the future further than we have already? and yes it's you, you, you and me that have polluted this world.