Superior Court Ruling on OceanaGold’s Offer to Expand in Waihi

A judge says Labor cabinet ministers were justified in overriding a decision by a Green Party colleague to block the next stage of a mining project in Waihi.

OceanaGold, in an application endorsed by the Office of Foreign Investment, said that a tailings dam was essential to its plans to extend the commercial life of the mines during which it expects to employ around 340 “full-time equivalent” employees and generate export earnings of approximately $ 2 billion.

But Land Information Minister and Green MP Eugenie Sage last year rejected a request from the foreign-owned company that said the gold mining expansion at Waihi was inherently unsustainable, would increase emissions, and provide only moderate labor benefits in related to the liquidation of the operation and the remediation of the site.

Six months later, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Associate Finance Minister David Parker reversed their decision on the grounds that the application met the criteria set out in the Foreign Investment Act that investment abroad will benefit or is likely to benefit New Zealand.

That led to a Court Review filed by the environmental group Coromandel Watchdog, which said ministers had not considered the detrimental effects of acquiring some 178ha of land east of Waihi.

Judge Karen Clark has now ruled that the provisions and criteria for considering a foreign investment application were not only highly prescriptive, but limiting.

There was no “general” provision allowing ministers to consider “any other matter” they considered relevant.

” The applicant has not established that ministers have not taken into account the relevant considerations when granting Oceana Gold consent requests. The ministers also did not apply an incorrect legal test. It follows that the request for judicial review must be dismissed, ” Judge Clark said.

OceanaGold Acting General Manager Dan Calderwood welcomed the decision.

“This decision allows us to advance planning for additional tailings storage, but any construction will require the consent of the resources under the strict New Zealand Resource Management Act before it can proceed.”

Calderwood said this process includes extensive technical, environmental and cultural studies beyond the initial geotechnical work that has already established this site as suitable for the construction of a tailings storage facility.

“We will also conduct a comprehensive consultation and engagement process with the local community and other stakeholders. Any future requests for resource consent will be made in close consultation and collaboration with the local community.”

The third tailings dam is part of the Quattro Project, a major expansion of the company’s operations in the city, which could allow it to continue mining beyond 2036.

But Coromandel Watchdog has vowed to keep fighting.

“Of course we are disappointed with this decision, but we are proud to have challenged the Labor Ministers for their inability to protect our environment. They also sabotaged a great decision by Minister Sage.

“This is in addition to the failure to fulfill its promise to ban mining on Conservation lands, which means that we have to continue to fight on multiple fronts against multinational gold companies, as well as against a government that has failed us,” said the president. of the organization, Catherine Delahunty. .

“Basically, the legal decision supports the strict consideration of ‘jobs only’ ministers when assessing whether a foreign company should have the right to buy land and turn it into a toxic waste dump. It rejects our argument that the national benefit of a project must include an adequate assessment of the harms and the positives. ”

He said the Superior Court ruling would not deter his organization from defending the public interest and the environment and against toxic mining.