The best antidote to 'No 1 drug'

 

Mining is Northland's best hope of creating jobs and stemming the exodus to Australia, Far North Mayor Wayne Brown said last week when he and Whangarei MP Phil Heatley, the Minister of Energy and Resources, launched the findings of last year's $2 million Northland aeromagnetic survey at Waitangi.

Anyone who expected maps with "X marks the spot" or details of what minerals lie buried where would have been disappointed.

Experts still need to analyse the trove of data released on DVDs and online, and even then it will only reveal which areas are likely to yield minerals, pending the analysis of rock and soil samples.

The launch was greeted by a vocal group of about 50 protesters from as far afield as Kaitaia and Whangarei who expressed their concerns at the potential for environmental damage. The 20 police officers from throughout the Far North on site made no arrests.

Mr Brown, who chairs the Northland Minerals Group and was the driving force behind the survey, said what lay behind it was "jobs, jobs, jobs".

Mining could provide an antidote to Northland's No 1 drug - welfare - and help keep Maori people and culture in the Far North. Already 400,000 New Zealanders, 125,000 of them Maori, were living in Australia, and the exodus was only likely to accelerate with tax-free thresholds about to increase across the Tasman.

New Zealand's highest-paid jobs were now in Buller, Mr Brown added, thanks to mining.

A 2007 GNS report said Northland's mineral production of $58 million annually could be increased to $354 million, and put the region's total gold deposits at more than $1.5 billion.

Mr Heatley described the data as a "huge asset" that gave Northland an edge over other regions, none of which had such comprehensive data.

Although mining had commanded much of the attention the information would be useful for determining soil types for farming, horticulture and viticulture, identifying unstable land, planning roads and buildings, and finding aquifers and geothermal energy sources.

It was a sad fact that many Northlanders were waving goodbye to family members moving to Australia to work in the resources industry, Mr Heatley said.

"It's madness. We could do it here," he added. Taranaki, which had a $2 billion a year oil and gas industry, had shown that mining could exist side-by-side with tourism and dairying.

Green MP and mining spokesperson Catherine Delahunty, however, was unconvinced, saying taxpayers had spent $2 million giving mining companies a "free pass". The exodus to Australia had to be stopped, but the best way of doing that was focusing on what Northland did best, which was horticulture, farming, aquaculture and organics.

"That will last through good times and bad. Mining is boom and bust," she said.

About 100 people representing iwi, petroleum and mining industries, GNS science and councils attended the launch.

Protest spokesman Dean Baigent-Mercer said he was pleased with the turnout and the wide range of people taking part.