Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki says the mining strategy launched at Blackball on the West Coast today by Minister Shane
Jones is a huge risk to the environment and a disingenuous promotion of the alleged benefits of mining.
“The focus of the launch was RRE ( rare earth metals) which by definition are rare in this country and not often found
at commercial scale. The real targets of the foreign companies are gold and coal mining. Gold mining is out of date
given the amount of gold still available for use already mined and the opportunity for mining e waste to provide
minerals such as gold and silver without leaving a toxic legacy.
Coal mining must be phased out to protect the climate and the West Coast needs transitional support to a sustainable
economy which doesn’t contribute to climate chaos, says Catherine Delahunty Watchdog Chairperson.
“At the Launch the Minister did not mention the risks of mining rare earths metals to workers health and the
environment. Mr Jones talks about antimony which is a metal 10 times more toxic than lead, and titanium which is a heavy
metal associated with serious lung diseases if exposed to it.
In addition all mining relies on foreign companies who are here to extract the wealth and then leave the toxic waste
legacy to the communities who are left with the risks and clean-up costs,” Ms Delahunty says.
Ms Delahunty also says the Minister’s statement that all stewardship land is open for mining shows he is poorly
informed.
“ The review of stewardship land seems to a have disappeared but the point was that much of that land has high
conservation value, contains important biodiversity and provides vital buffers for the Schedule 4 areas. Mining does not
belong on conservation land. “
Ms Delahunty said the Fast Track Bill and the promotion today of the mining lobby agenda is economically short sighted
and environmentally reckless.