This article was first published by RNZ.
The government has released a draft list of 35 minerals it considers essential to the economy.
The list, released for consultation, will form part of its mineral strategy which maps the potential and practicality of mining.
In May, the government released a draft strategy for mineral mining, aiming to double the sector’s export value to $2 billion by 2035.
“The draft list covers a range of minerals with many different applications within our economy and considers minerals that are needed internationally where New Zealand may be able to contribute to supply,” Resources Minister Shane Jones said
“It also considers risks to domestic and international supply chains, and where there is a need to build more supply resilience.”
New Zealand has never developed a comprehensive picture of its minerals needs and weaknesses, Jones said, and he was correcting this with the creation of the Critical Minerals List.
Jones told Morning Report premium and quality information about what New Zealand has was important, he said.
“I’m not walking away from the fact that there is still a lot of nervousness within certain parts of New Zealand as to opening up the mineral sector but look, every economic arrow in the quiver has to hit a target for us and minerals are an area where we’ve under done it and subject to robust consent processes, why should we continually say we’re going to import everything if we’ve got it here and we can turn it into an export industry.”
Coal and gold are not on the list. Jones said they were not in short supply in Australasia and he did not want anyone to feel they had been “written out of the script”.
“There are trade offs to be made. We touch a tiny fraction of the conservation estate. Less than one percent is dedicated to coal mining and it’s coal that generates not only jobs but incredibly valuable export earnings.
“So I think we should step away from the apocryphile language and expect that there are trade offs to be made and let science, economic rationalism and technology guard those decisions.”
Environmental advocates fear the government’s new wishlist could lead to mining on conservation land.
Forest and Bird spokesperson Richard Capie said it was a worrying sign, as many of those minerals will be in conservation areas.
Capie said it seemed the government is eager to build mines throughout New Zealand.
That could seriously damage the environment, he said.
- RNZ