Greenpeace is slamming the government’s late release of heavily redacted documents from Trans-Tasman Resources’ Taranaki seabed mining application, including a discredited impact assessment carried from 2016.

Seabed mining spokesperson Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Rarotonga) says, "TTR has just regurgitated the same old documents from 2016, which failed to show that its seabed mining project would cause no material harm to the South Taranaki Bight.

"Experts have shown that seabed mining would be a significant threat to marine life, including blue whales, Māui and Hector’s dolphins, little blue penguins, and critical fishing grounds, but now under the fast track, it has a new lease of life."

Lee adds: "This government has cynically released these documents just days before the summer break and only after the Fast Track Bill’s second reading.

"The fact that TTR has just thrown up its old documents reaffirms that the Luxon government has set the bar so low for these fast-track projects that companies like TTR can get away with regurgitating a failed application and still be allowed on the process.

"The amount of redaction in these documents shows that the government can’t be trusted over any claims of supposed economic benefits that TTR’s seabed mining project would bring.

"It is so cynical that the government has redacted these figures, given that the whole point of the Fast-Track process is its supposed economic benefits.

"We already know that the inflated $1bn figure that TTR originally gave is spurious, as shown by the withdrawal of that figure by TTR’s Australian owners, Manuka Resources," says Lee.

Over 20,000 people have signed an open letter pledging resistance to companies opting into the fast track, and a further 45,000 have signed a petition calling on the Government to ban seabed mining outright.

Trans-Tasman Resources plans to mine up to 50 million tonnes of iron sands and dump 45 million tonnes of waste back into the ocean every year - for 30 years.

TTR’s application has been rejected time and again in the open court process and is opposed by local iwi and hapū, an increasing number of local councillors, the fishing industry, scientists and marine experts.

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