Bathurst plans nine mine sites

Tuesday 5th July 2011 1 Comment

Bathurst Resources subsidiary Buller Coal (BCL) has moved into its new Westport offices and appears confident its opencast mining project will go ahead, not only on the Denniston Escarpment but also at eight further sites across the Brunner coal seam.

Bathurst executive director Gerry Cooper said around six existing staff were moving into the offices and more clerical staff would be employed soon. A formal opening was planned in the near future.

BCL’s council consent hearing process for the escarpment mine is due to continue tomorrow. Access agreements are being negotiated with the Department of Conservation (DOC).

A Bathurst investor presentation delivered in Hong Kong and Australia in May showed the 200ha escarpment mine as just the tip of the iceberg.

The presentation detailed Bathurst’s mining permits for over 10,000ha of the Buller Coal Field, ranging from Whareatea West to Northern Buller with a prospective output of 125 –167 million tonnes of coal.

The presentation said that the DOC access arrangement was in its final review. No major issues had been raised for either the access arrangement or the environmental consents from the West Coast regional or Buller district councils.

Speaking at the Westport consent hearing, Bathurst lawyer Jo Appleyard described the escarpment mine as the "flagship" for Bathurst’s mining plans in Buller.

But Forest and Bird top of the south field officer Debs Martin said buying up all the permits didn’t mean Bathurst had access to the land.

It was public conservation land owned by all New Zealanders, she said.

The plateau contained a nationally rare ecosystem that was one of the four main priorities for protection across the country.

New Zealanders had national and international obligations to protect it.

BCL had presented its permits for almost the entire plateau to its investors, but at the hearing was concentrating on only a small 200ha corner and saying that was all the commissioners could consider.

By "putting your toe in the door" and degrading one area of the plateau, it was easier to argue to keep degrading the rest as it would no longer be a pristine area.

"Not a lot of people do actually realise what kind of wedge will be driven into that plateau by this proposal," Martin said.

"While they’re sitting here and saying 'we’re not really going to do much harm and the powelliphanta (giant land snail) can just live elsewhere on the plateau', they’re going to look at elsewhere on the plateau in isolation too and say the same thing again, and keep saying the same thing again, until the whole area is mined."

NZPA

Comments from our readers

On 5 July 2011 at 4:41 pm Bernie Fuller said:

I feel Forest and Bird need to rethink what they are attempting to do in trying to close down prospects of mining in New Zealand. New Zealand needs this mining if we wish to avoid becoming a third world country. It will create huge employment opportunities on the West Coast.