MWC/Doc Workshop: Access to minerals on public conservation lands
45 people representing the diversity of the West Coast business and regulatory community attended a one-day joint Minerals West Coast – Department of Conservation workshop entitled Access to Minerals on Public Conservation Land held at the Tai Poutini campus Greymouth on Wednesday 29 March.

Some 87% of the region’s land is public conservation land managed on behalf of the Crown by the Department of Conservation. This land is not generally closed to mining; however the department manages access to land under its jurisdiction for exploration and mining purposes through Access Arrangements as set out in the Crown Minerals Act. Some miners say that the department is overly restrictive and bureaucratic, the department refutes this. Against this backdrop both groups met to listen to each other’s views.

Attendees represented the whole range of the mining community from ‘majors’ to independent coal and gold operators. Industry argued that the key to a prosperous region is access. Chris Hickford, DoC’s Westland Conservancy Community Relations Manager and Campbell Robertson, Team Leader, set the context in which the department must operate and what is required for AA applications. Ian Wightwick, who manages the Department of Conservation’s concessions for the West Coast Conservancy then covered the cases when concessions would apply and how to go about obtaining these.

During the course of all the speakers’ presentations a number of suggestions from the floor were offered as options for improvements to the ways DoC manages the statutory requirements placed upon them. DoC was very open to these and agreed to take the ideas away and work with Minerals West Coast to provide more user-friendly ways of providing access to the industry. MWC is working and will continue to work with the department to provide a more pragmatic approach to gaining access to the region’s minerals estate.

MWC Forum July 13 Reefton
Back to the basics: water, land, energy, community
Come and hear commentator Rod Oram, Rick Pridmore CEO of NIWA, Greg Partington CEO of Kenex Information Systems and Kit Wilson media and community relations consultant present their views on these basics, plus industry updates. We are also planning a field trip and working on a dinner and special guest speaker. Keep this day and evening free. Last year’s Forum provided much stimulating discussion. We expect this year’s to do the same.

Keith Brodie Project Co-ordinator

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