The quarry industry has written to the Green Party saying a new private member’s bill to ban all new extractive activity on all conservation land could have profound implications for New Zealand.
Aggregate and Quarry Association CEO, Wayne Scott, says quarrying companies are extremely concerned that if the bill covers all minerals, it will end access to riverbank gravel deposits on land with little or no conservation value.
The Crown Minerals (Prohibition on Mining on Conservation Land) Amendment Bill from the Green Party’s environment spokesperson Lam Pham was drawn from the biscuit tin last week. It seeks to prohibit all new exploration and mining activity on conservation land and waters.
Wayne Scott says current extraction of aggregates on DoC land is essential for much construction activity, including by DoC itself. That included it taking rock and gravel from conservation land adjoining the Waiho River near Franz Josef Glacier for its walking tracks.
“This sensible decision saved DoC a four-fold dollar amount and considerable carbon emissions rather than trucking it a long way from an existing quarry. This was approved at the time by Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage, a Green MP.”
He says ending gravel extraction on DoC land could lock up as much as a third of New Zealand’s future hard rock reserves which are situated on the broader DoC estate.
“Quarries often need to cross DoC land to get to alluvial (river) deposits of gravel which account for a big percentage of New Zealand’s current supply of aggregate. If these reserves are roped off in perpetuity, it will halt the ambitions of successive governments to resolve our woeful national infrastructure deficit. We simply won’t have the aggregate needed to build homes, roads, rail corridors and cycle tracks or to fix our water infrastructure.”
Wayne Scott says the bill, if passed, could also mean an end to alluvial gold extraction which is the source of most of New Zealand’s pounamu (greenstone) production.
He says he’s happy to meet the Greens and other parties to discuss the quarry industry’s concerns.
“The Greens are very unlikely to get Government support to pass this bill and we hope the Labour Party will apply its voiced determination for sensible bipartisan policies to this issue.”
“No quarry wants to extract resources from a national park. Any access to the wider conservation estate is done under a permit. If an aggregate resource sits on DoC land, you need a concession. So, the protections are already in place.”
Contact: Wayne Scott, AQA CEO 021 944 336