• Late Feb/early March for details
• DoC unhappy - public supportive
• Expect “very large” numbers

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee is getting close to unveiling the detail of last August’s announcements of a Govt stocktake of the country’s mineral resources, including those resources known to lie under protected Dept of Conservation land. Brownlee was pleasantly surprised when he first mooted the stocktake of lands covered by Schedule IV of the RMA, encountering significant public support and only piecemeal protest from an environmental lobby which seemed both surprised and unready to mount effective opposition.

Whether potential opponents have regrouped since then remains to be seen, but there is no doubt the detailed stocktake will be taking place in a much less benign political climate than last year, as the Govt starts moving on a range of important but potentially unpopular reforms in areas such as tax reform, public spending, and health. Brownlee has encountered no great enthusiasm for the plan among DoC officials who are needed to make it happen in a joint project with MED. While there are some 80-plus exploration and mining licences already issued on DoC lands, Labour treated this fact like a dirty secret, whereas National is fired up about accelerating economic growth through a greater focus on mineral exploitation.

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Of most interest are: gold, silver and other precious metals in the Coromandel Peninsula; a range of minerals including antimony, chromium, copper, gold, lead-zinc, molybdenum, nickel, platinum, rare earths, tin and titanium in the Kahurangi National Park at the top of the South Island; gold, chromium and nickel deposits around Mt Aspiring; and pockets of potential on Stewart Island, North Island west coast ironsands are a big opportunity too. Detailed announcements are due towards the end of the month, or in early March. Early estimates of the very substantial value of these resources are being regarded as a key part of winning the public argument that will follow a stocktake which appears certain to find prospective opportunity under protected lands.

The key to the Brownlee package will therefore lie in its ability to fund additional conservation land and activity, to prove that his assurances of a win-win outcome for the economy and the environment from any mining on DoC land are more than just political rhetoric. The appraisal exercise will be a major early test for newly appointed Conservation Minister Kate Wilkinson, who takes over from Tim Groser to allow him to focus more completely on his international trade and climate change negotiation portfolios.

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