Bay of Plenty Times
  • Bay of Plenty Times home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Sport
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport

Locations

  • Coromandel & Hauraki
  • Katikati
  • Tauranga
  • Mount Maunganui
  • Pāpāmoa
  • Te Puke
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Thames
  • Tauranga
  • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Premium
Home / Bay of Plenty Times

Government U-turn on land purchase for Waihī mining group

Katee Shanks
By Katee Shanks
Multimedia journalist·Bay of Plenty Times·
8 Oct, 2019 07:00 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

OceanaGold needs resource consent from the Hauraki District Council before it can begin operations on the land. Photo / File

OceanaGold needs resource consent from the Hauraki District Council before it can begin operations on the land. Photo / File

Government approval for OceanaGold to purchase land near its Waihī mine disrupted an otherwise quiet business day.

OceanaGold senior community advisor Kit Wilson said he was aware a decision on the land purchase was coming, but he had not expected it yesterday. The decision came after Minister of Finance Grant Robertson and Associate Minister of Finance David Parker considered the applications under the Overseas Investment Act and recommended it be approved.

The application was first put before Associate Finance Minister David Clark and Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage, but it was turned down after Sage did not agree with her coalition colleague that the purchase was likely to have substantial and identifiable benefits.

A key reason for approval, according to Robertson and Parker, was the benefit it would have on the country due to the retention of about 340 fulltime jobs over nine years and exports valued at $2 billion in that time.

"When the initial bid to buy land was turned down earlier this year it came as a surprise," Wilson said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"We applied for a judicial review to the High Court and were invited by Government to re-apply to buy the land.

"We made the application with additional information attached and that application has now been accepted."

Wilson said steps would now be taken to buy the land.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Perhaps one thing the community is not aware of is, while we have permission to buy the land, we still need to obtain resource consent before a tailings dam can be built.

"It will be during the consent process when Waihī locals and the wider community have the opportunity to have their concerns heard."

Discover more

OceanaGold to meet with residents living over new mine in Waihi

06 Feb 08:00 PM

OceanaGold applies to mine under conservation land

11 May 02:26 AM

Waihī mine expansion application approved

07 Oct 10:26 PM

Locals happy with Government decision for land buy

09 Oct 06:00 PM

He said Waihī people were used to resource consent hearings as OceanaGold were involved with them every one to two years.

"We [OceanaGold] are going to be here [Waihi] for the next 10 years. The proposed tailings storage provides us with the opportunity to keep going."

OceanaGold has also sought a mining permit over its Wharekirauponga discovery in the Coromandel Forest Park, about 10km north of the firm's Martha Pit in Waihi.

Wilson also took the opportunity to allay fears about tailings dams. "I am aware people have heard about the failings of overseas tailings dam," he said.

"Ours are built in the same way a water-retaining structure is, they do not fail."

The decision to overturn the initial ban has prompted a reply from National's Economic Development spokesman Todd McClay, who said the Government's land and environment policies were in disarray.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Ms Sage declined the expansion of the Waihi mine saying it was inherently unsustainable, will increase emissions, and will provide only moderate employment benefits relative to winding down the operation and remediating the site," McClay said.

"Now that the Waihi Mine expansion has been agreed, Ms Sage must now remove her objections to the West Coast Hydro Scheme and let this project go ahead also."

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Bay of Plenty Times

Te Puke incident: Person airlifted after serious injury

Bay of Plenty Times

Red and black: How Whaka plans to seize rugby glory

Bay of Plenty Times

Rural community 'in shock' as industrial park greenlit


Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Bay of Plenty Times

Te Puke incident: Person airlifted after serious injury
Bay of Plenty Times

Te Puke incident: Person airlifted after serious injury

One person was airlifted to Waikato Hospital in a serious condition.

17 Jul 02:26 AM
Red and black: How Whaka plans to seize rugby glory
Bay of Plenty Times

Red and black: How Whaka plans to seize rugby glory

17 Jul 12:12 AM
Rural community 'in shock' as industrial park greenlit
Bay of Plenty Times

Rural community 'in shock' as industrial park greenlit

16 Jul 09:04 PM


Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
Sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

06 Jul 09:47 PM
NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Bay of Plenty Times e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Bay of Plenty Times
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP