Rock mining opponents feel ignored

Groups opposed to what they say is the most dangerous form of mining for Northland have accused the Northland Regional Council of deliberately undermining wide-ranging concerns.

The regional council has released its response to submissions on the proposed Northland Regional Policy Statement (NRPS) which will frame consent policies and regional and district plans for the next 10 years.

Hearings on the NRPS submissions will be heard before a panel of independent commissioners, and are scheduled to start on Monday, May 20.

Concerns about toxic hard rock mining in the Puhipuhi hills have been raised at public meetings and are the subject of many submissions by farmers, advocacy groups, hapu and the public, MineWatch Northland said.

The NRC staff report has recommended rejecting a number of those submissions calling for either a total prohibition or a "precautionary approach" to toxic hard rock mining in Northland.

The report claims the Resource Management Act's consent process already requires "rigorous evaluation" into the possible effects of mining, and therefore is "precautionary". There was not enough information, or proof of a lack of measures preventing adverse, on which to base a plan change, the report said.

But MineWatch Northland spokesman Tim Howard said the mining-related responses sidestepped the issue of toxic waste and its potential legacy.

Protecting water from contamination by toxic waste should be one of the highest priorities in Northland, Mr Howard said.

"Hard-rock mining creates vast amounts of tailings dust that is heavily contaminated with heavy metals like mercury, cadmium and arsenic," he said.

"This dust must be kept wet and be stored forever in huge dams. These dams can fail in natural disasters, or simply due to poor design or maintenance. Even stable tailings dams must overflow during heavy rain leaking contaminates into groundwater."

It is understood Australian company De Grey Mining Ltd will start drilling three 500 metre core samples at Puhipuhi soon, and intends doing the same amount of drilling next year.