• Increased mining key to catching Aust.
• Conservation Minister endorses idea.
• Green groups and Opposition gear up.

If you thought PM John Key went out on a limb with his decision on the smacking referendum, get ready for the next chapter as the National-led Govt starts marking out a major mineral exploration push as fundamental to catching up with Aust. Others have talked about the need to close the widening trans-Tasman income gap. Till now, no one has come up with big ideas on how to do it, or have ruled out the option of chasing minerals as either environmentally inappropriate or electoral suicide, or both.

Now what’s emerging is a real push to make the catch-up happen, with the Govt’s pro-resources exploitation stance emerging as a defining characteristic of its plan to see NZ grow faster. This coincides with trade figures, reported elsewhere in this issue, showing minerals are now the “fourth pillar” of the export economy thanks to recent and pending oilfield extractions.

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee says nearly a third of NZ’s mineral potential is under protected national parks, marine reserves and wilderness lands covered by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, administered by DoC. By proposing “responsible mining techniques” on this land, he is inviting a head-on collision with environmental campaigners and Opposition parties. Presumably he is gambling the people who voted National in will see its actions as progressive and wealth-creating as long as environmental values are appropriately preserved.

Not everyone in the Beehive is so sure, although Conservation Minister Tim Groser is welcoming, while Key made “worth considering” noises, but says as Tourism Minister he “won’t do anything silly” with the DoC estate. To amend Schedule 4, substantial public consultation is required by law and the definition of “appropriately preserved environmental values” is the battleground for that consultation. Such a concept is oxymoronic to opponents of intrusive economic development in NZ’s conservation estate.

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Any plans to mine lignite coal - a low efficiency carbon-rich fuel - would legitimately raise big questions about the Govt’s climate change commitment. Brownlee singled out zinc, lead, copper, nickel, tin, and tungsten deposits lying in Schedule 4 lands in the speech which stirred the issue up last week, and noted the boundaries of the Oteake Conservation Park had been amended by 0.3% to keep lignite deposits out of Schedule 4.

If part of Aust’s success vs NZ is the productivity boost it’s got from depending on minerals, then Key and Brownlee are determined not to see NZ’s mineral potential go unconsidered, no matter the inevitable political outcry. However, it remains to be seen whether it is worth the candle pursuing mining and DoC land if more than two-thirds of the identified mineral potential is already outside the conservation estate.

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