DOC allows bigger mining hole in Conservation Park

The Government should not have allowed Oceana Gold Ltd to significantly expand its open cast gold mining operation on conservation land, the Green Party said today.

"Our conservation land should exist to protect our unique wildlife and treasured places, not to allow foreign companies to make off with our gold, leaving toxic waste in its place," said Green Party conservation spokesperson Eugenie Sage.

Ms Sage was responding to the Department of Conservation's recent decision to allow Oceana Gold to increase the pit size for its open cast Globe Progress Mine in Victoria Conservation Park to 81 hectares and the waste rock stacks to 109 hectares.

The Department's own reports say this will result in the destruction of an extra 55 hectares of forest habitat in the North Westland Wildlife Corridor and the death or displacement of around 1,000 native birds. These birds include threatened and at risk species such as the South Island kaka, bush falcon, yellow-crowned kakariki, long-tailed cuckoo, and South Island rifleman.

"A more modest application to increase the size of the Globe Progress Mine was rejected in 2001 by the then Minister of Conservation, who said that the expansion would contradict the objectives of the Conservation Act," said Ms Sage.

"It defies belief that the Government no longer regards such an expansion in the Conservation Park as problematic."

Ms Sage also objected to the lack of public input into the decision.

"The Government, West Coast Regional Council, and Oceana Gold Ltd have all operated by stealth to allow Oceana Gold to significantly increase its impact on conservation land," said Ms Sage.

"The lack of consultation is a back-down on the Government's 2010 promise to publically notify significant applications to mine conservation land.

"The public should have its say on the decision to destroy dozens of hectares of precious conservation land for more open cast gold mining.

"With its huge waste rock stacks and tailings impoundments, the Globe Progress Mine is a toxic time bomb in the hills behind Reefton. This seismically active area receives heavy rainfall, and a failure of the tailings dam would be catastrophic," said Ms Sage.