Coal mining approval moving at rare snails' pace

Conservation Minister Chris Carter says he will not sign off Solid Energy's plan to move a population of rare native snails sitting on $400 million worth of coking coal until scientists say whether the snails would survive the move.

Mr Carter said in Curitiba, Brazil - where he is attending a UN conference on biological diversity - that the company's plan was a "generous offer", but he was waiting for scientists to decide whether the powelliphanta augustus snails would survive or if the population should be left untouched in its habitat above the coal.

"The question is if this mitigation will be enough to save the species."

New Zealand voters understood the need to protect tiny species like snails, Mr Carter said, even though they were "less iconic than whales and tigers".

Solid Energy has not yet begun mining the 11ha area, which contains premium coking coal. It applied to the Department of Conservation in August last year to move the snails by hand, and after a High Court case last December, the company added to its application an offer for "direct transfer" of the snails' habitat.

The energy company is reported to have suggested lifting topsoil from the carnivorous snail's habitat of shrubs and moving it away from the mines surrounding it. The company might also build a fence to protect the snails from predators in the new area and start a project to breed them. Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder said on March 22 the timing on the decision over the 11ha area was "critical".

"We are running to the very end of our window on that, which is now about a week to two weeks away.

"Everybody is aware of the urgency of this, so we are trusting that [Mr Carter] will consider it promptly and we will get a rapid decision."

Mr Carter is not due to return from Brazil until April 4, and his spokesman has said a final decision on the snails is likely by about the second week of April.

On February 27, Mr Carter allowed Solid Energy to relocate a smaller group of snails, the remnant of a population in a mined area.

Solid Energy is still preparing to mine the 11ha area on the basis that the permit will be granted, but Dr Elder has said if the wildlife permit is not granted workers will have to be stood down.

Without access to the premium coal, Stockton output would halve, the predicted mine life would plummet and the proposed Cypress Mine was unlikely to be viable, according to Dr Elder.

- NZPA