Mt Burnett dolomite quarry extension declined
Conservation Minister Chris Carter has declined a request for access to a nationally significant piece of conservation
land sought for the expansion of a dolomite and rock quarry on Mount Burnett in Golden Bay.
Omya (NZ Ltd) runs the dolomite quarry, which spans over 128.7 hectares of Mount Burnett on the fringes of Kahurangi
National Park. The company applied to obtain access rights over an additional 4ha of conservation land so it could
extend its existing quarry.
"After considering the criteria laid down in the Crown Minerals Act, I have declined this application because the cost
to New Zealand's biodiversity is simply too high," Mr Carter said today.
"Mount Burnett has an ecology of national and international significance. The distinctive geological and topographical
features of the area have resulted in a very rare and highly unusual forest that is home to at least six species of
shrub and sedge found nowhere else in the world but on Mount Burnett," Mr Carter said.
"The piece of land sought by Omya is a habitat for three of these species. Two of them are classified as nationally
critical and the other, nationally endangered. The land also contains a significant population of a nationally
endangered giant land snail, Powelliphanta. In fact an entire subspecies of this snail is located within a two kilometre
radius of Mt Burnett and nowhere else," Mr Carter said.
"In making my decision I have concluded that the inconsistencies between the application and the objectives of the
Conservation Act under which the land is held, the various purposes for which the land is held and the relevant
management plans that apply over the area are sufficient to outweigh the partial safeguards and the compensation being
offered by the company," Mr Carter said.
"To put it simply, approving this access arrangement would be like agreeing to the destruction of up to seven of the
last 100 kakapo," Mr Carter said.
He said the company had offered a compensation package in which 14 ha of its current mining licence, also containing the
rare plants, would have been voluntarily set aside from any mining in return for the area applied for.
"While I appreciate Omya's efforts, I cannot accept this arrangement because the advice to me is the company is not
actually planning to mine the proffered 14 ha until after its existing mining licence for the area (ML32-1871) expires
in 2006. Consequently, I believe it makes good sense to wait and explore the whole issue of dolomite quarrying on Mt
Burnett again in 2006."
Mr Carter said the company had assured him that they had sufficient supplies of raw materials to keep working until
2006.