Trans-Tasman Resources can respond to the draft rejection before the final ruling next month – and could challenge the outcome in court.
But Te Runanga o Ngāti Ruanui kaiwhakahaere (director) Rachel Arnott believed the draft rejection, released on the eve of Waitangi Day, would stick.
“I bloody hope so,” she said.
Ngāti Ruanui led the opposition to the mine even before the first application in 2013, winning in the High Court, the Court of Appeal and, in 2021, the Supreme Court.
Ordered to start again, TTR instead reapplied under the explicitly pro-development Fast-track Approvals Act.
The Fast-track panel invited the company to submit more evidence of safety but said in its decision that TTR did not provide enough proof.
Arnott said the panel’s conclusion that TTR’s evidence was lacking left the mining bid dead in the water.
“They haven’t actually done the work.
“They continue to use the same experts; they bring in a couple of others ... Many haven’t even set foot in Aotearoa.”
TTR executive chairman Alan Eggers said the company was disappointed.
“It is difficult to reconcile why the expert panel did not accept our FTA [Fast-track Approvals Act] application and evidence provided, including input from many world-leading experts.”
Trans-Tasman Resources wants to suck up 50 million tonnes of seabed sediment a year for at least 20 years to extract iron, titanium and vanadium.
A factory ship would discharge 45 million tonnes of slurry annually back into the waters of the Pātea Shoals – 170,000 tonnes a day, allowing for downtime.
The main ecological risks are a drifting plume of sediment smothering thriving reef ecosystems and the impact of underwater noise pollution on protected marine mammals.
Eggers said he found it “difficult to accept” the Fast-track panel’s intent to decline the project “with concerns on almost every aspect”.
Te Tai Hauāuru MP Debbie Ngarewa-Packer said TTR’s mining bid had no chance after the panel found that harms far outweighed economic benefits.
“I’m extremely confident, probably more confident about this than I’ve ever been,” Ngarewa-Packer, also Te Pāti Māori’s co-leader, said.
“Even under Fast-track legislation, designed to push projects through, seabed mining has been found to cause unacceptable harm to the environment, to taonga species [treasured species] and to tikanga Māori [Māori customs].”
Ngarewa-Packer intends this week to lodge a revamped member’s bill in Parliament to outlaw seabed mining, amended to deal with changes including the Fast-track law.
All eight Taranaki iwi opposed the mine, alongside the region’s four councils and neighbouring Whanganui District Council.
A predominantly southeast drift from the mine means Ngā Rauru Kītahi reefs could be worst hit by seabed sediment.
Te Kāhui o Rauru tumu whakarae Tahinganui Hina said the iwi opposed TTR from the start because the environmental risk was so massive.
“We’re up for things that we can manage,” Hina said.
“Let’s take renewable energy, it’s a palatable conversation: TTR’s not even a topic we can talk about.”
Hapū led Ngāruahine iwi’s response, foregrounding a new generation of leaders like Puawai Hudson of Ngati Tū.
For decades, her grandfather, Rocky Hudson, was central in Ngāruahine’s battles in courts and at the Waitangi Tribunal.
“I reflect on my koroua [grandfather] who was still around when these fights started and ... it’s now fallen to his mokopuna’s [grandchildren’s] generation.”
Iwi were forced to spend scarce funds fighting this battle “but the biggest cost to our people is the emotional tax”, Hudson said.
“Our old people are getting tired. They’ve fought for years, for decades.”
She doubted TTR could overturn the draft decision.
“The cultural impacts far outweigh any regional benefit, especially when most of that money will be exported overseas.”
South Taranaki District Council Deputy Mayor Rob Northcott is a councillor for Pātea, the centre of opposition to the mine.
Northcott agreed the draft decision was likely the death knell for Trans-Tasman’s plans.
“We’re just saying that nah, nah, we’re not prepared to gamble our environment and that’s the core of it really.”
Pātea Community Board chair Jacq Dwyer credited mana whenua for leading the whole community in opposition to TTR for 13 years.
“We are relieved but we’re cautious,” she said.
“We understand they’re determined, they’ve got a lot of money, but we’re never going to back down.
“We’re never going to change our stance on the imperative that we protect the ocean.”
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
