PM revises plan to open parks for mining

John Key

The Prime Minister appeared to hint at a watering down of proposals to open national parks to mining yesterday, saying the Government had started looking at less sensitive parts of the country.

In November, Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee said a proposal would be tabled in February, which would include land to be removed from Schedule 4 - legislation that bans mining in national parks and other outstanding conservation areas.

But Mr Key said the Government was not ruling out opening up those areas to mining.

Cabinet had for three weeks been considering also mining outside the most sensitive areas, in the two-thirds of the conservation estate not protected by Schedule 4.

The Forest and Bird conservation group this week named four Auckland and Coromandel sites - Great Barrier Island, two sites in the Coromandel near Whangamata, and a site above Thames - among the areas proposed for mining, which it said had been considered but not approved by Cabinet.

The alleged draft proposal would have removed protection from:

* 700ha of the Te Ahumata plateau on Great Barrier Island (known as White Cliff).
* 2500ha near Thames township.
* The 396ha Otahu Ecological Area and neighbouring 70ha Parakawai Geological Reserve near Whangamata.
* A 3000ha slice of the Paparoa National Park - home to the famous Pancake Rocks - on the South Island's West Coast.

Yesterday, opponents said the Government was secretly back-pedalling after realising the idea was hugely unpopular.

Green MP Catherine Delahunty said the Government was beginning to realise it had opened an "unpopular can of worms".

John Key yesterday refused to confirm the accuracy of the leak, accusing the media of "hysteria" over the issue.

He said the issue was still being considered by Cabinet: "I wouldn't jump to any conclusions."

Wellington City councillor Helene Ritchie was on Great Barrier Island over the weekend and said the community had had no idea the island could be in line for mining. She described the alleged proposal to mine White Cliff or Te Ahumata as "madness', because the high plateau was in direct sight of tourists arriving at the island by plane.

Forest and Bird spokesman Kevin Hackwell said the gold and silver on Great Barrier would "be in very low concentrations", meaning it could not be dug out through a "little hole in the hill".

He dismissed claims mining could be done "surgically" with little visual impact.

"It is the sort of thing you would be open-cast mining for... for every gram or two of gold or silver you remove you have to crunch up over 1000kg of rock."

The picturesque island has few roads and no electricity. Mr Hackwell said the alleged proposed sites near Whangamata were on a popular tramping route, drained into an almost pristine harbour, and housed rare plant and animal life.