Changing Perceptions of Extractive Industry in New Zealand

Martha Mine, Waihi Gold's open pit operation.

Today we got a first hand look at the inner workings of extractive industries in New Zealand, in particular the gold and silver mining operation of the Waihi Mine and the restoration of the Tui Mine, NZ's most contaminated site. The Waihi Mine operations consists of the Martha Mine, a 260 meter deep, 640 meter wide and 860 meter long open pit (853 feet deep, 2100 feet wide, and 2820 feet long) - basically an enormous hole in the ground, and two underground mines. Currently no gold is being acquired from the open pit, but exploration efforts are underway to see if it is feasible to mine for gold underneath the open pit. The company is essentially trying to find more gold and silver to continue operations for years to come since it has been such an integral part of the town's economy for so many years. The Martha Mine was mined underground from 1882-1952 and today's open pit operations mostly consists of mining what was considered waste rock in the early mining years.

What was most interesting was learning about how Waihi Gold is dealing with historic perceptions of mining. As I stood along the fences surrounding the open pit, I was astonished that human machinery could create such a deep scar in the earth. It was incredible and scary. However, all the while I was there, I kept thinking back on my research on oil sands companies from my summer internship. I remembered reconciling my strong convictions of environmentally degrading practices by sustainable investors engaging in dialogue with companies to better their operations and encouraging best practice performance for a cleaner, more sustainable future. While many environmentalists, myself included, would love to do away with practices such as drilling for oil and mining for oil, precious metals, coal, you name it, these practices are most especially the ones that need to be focused on and assessed instead of dismissing them on the basis of their environmental damage. The same goes for precious metal mining, there are certain expectations that mining companies must meet due to a history of negative perceptions of the industry and as a result industry performance has undoubtedly improved over time.

Excavator used in mining operations of Waihi Gold. Quite the expensive piece of machinery with a single tire costing $20K.

A stark contrast from the socially responsible and environmentally conscious operation of the Waihi Mine is the Tui Mine. It was in production from 1967-1973 and mined metals including zinc, copper, lead and some silver. It was owned by a Japanese company that was liquidated in 1973 and the mine shut down in 1975. Tui closed so abruptly and without warning that mine workers showed up to find no one there. Today, remediation efforts have been ongoing and are being undertaken by Environment Waikato. The Tui Mine site currently consists of a technically unstable dam that sits above the underground mine. The toxic tailings ponds lie behind the dam. It is estimated that 40,000 tons of toxins reside in the tailings and stabilization processes are being used for their recovery. The process of stabilization consists of pumping cement and lime with the tailings in order to change their chemical composition and stabilize it. The fear surrounding this effort is the very imminent threat of dam collapse in an earthquake or washout event. Since the catchment generates a lot of water and annual rainfall totals 2 meters, dam collapse and contamination of Te Aroha, the town below is a real danger.

Tui Mine tailings pond. Grey bits on the side are the toxic tailings.

On the upside, the Tui Mine does provide operating mines such as Waihi with a classic example of what not to do as a mine operation. In conjunction with New Zealand's Resource Management Act, an incident such as Tui would never be allowed to happen again as it establishes a resource consent system. This system requires operators to plan for mine closure before the mine is even up and running. It also requires that they obtain consents from the government in order to mine and carry out different aspects of the operation such as discharging water and establishing water quality monitoring, preventing any hazardous effluent from getting into streams and rivers.

All the pressure put on mining companies by legislation and the scrutiny that they face by the public has aided in their continued improvement as well as an added expansion of environmental efforts. The Waihi Mine, for instance, funds and supports efforts to protect the dotterel in Opoutere. As one of our guest speakers put it: it is developed nations with democratic institutions, a free press and environmental regulations such as New Zealand that should be taking responsibility for having and bettering these industries rather than putting the burden on developing countries that have rampant corruption and political strife.

Opoutere

View of Wharekawa Harbor and river channel leading out to Opoutere beach.

On the east coast of the Coromandel, a short 1 1/2 hour’s drive from EcoQuest, is the small village of Opoutere where we stayed for 4 days. Opoutere is situated in such a way that the Wharekawa Harbor, a small estuary that feeds into a gorgeous, paradise-like beach with blue-green water and mountainous islands in the distance. The nicest part was the lack of visitors, which added to the feeling of being in a secluded paradise. The path to the beach is a 10-minute walk through pine forest very much different from those in New England. Pine trees in New Zealand take about half the amount of time to grow into large adult pines (with massive pine cones!) as those back home. The result: ideal conditions for logging. What saddened me about Opoutere was seeing such a majestic landscape against the backdrop of whole mountain sides completely clear cut. The battle between environment and industry is clearly being played out on the Wharekawa Harbor, an estuary that provides numerous ecosystem services such as flood control, nutrient and sediment retention, habitat, etc. The dilemma lies in the fact that it makes economic sense to clear cut these wide expanses. Trees grow at a much faster rate in NZ and are much less dense than in their native habitat, making logging an attractive and profitable venture. We spent our week learning about how stresses of human use such as forestry are impacting the harbor and the consequences of these actions (e.g. sedimentation, habitat/biodiversity loss, etc.) The struggle at hand now is managing land uses with as  ’best practice’ as possible considering the suitability of such a fragile environment.

View of clear cut from the Mountain of Two Women trail. Opoutere, NZ.

Welcome to EcoQuest!

EcoQuest's backyard. Kaiaua, New Zealand.

EcoQuest has been a crazy ride since last Wednesday (August 31st) when I was waking up at 4am to drive into Boston, delayed by two days due to Irene. After arriving at Los Angeles International, a 12-plus hour layover awaited, followed by a 13 1/2 hour plane ride to Auckland. Luckily, I slept almost all the way. I remember peering out of the window on our way down (at which point I was super excited) and seeing so much green and blue, lush rolling hills, volcanic cones and mountain ranges in the distance. I haven’t been to much of the world, but New Zealand is definitely the most beautiful of those places. As we drove out of Auckland, a city in a volcano valley, we came onto windy, narrow roads and hilly farmland. We were soon met by the coast and a breathtaking view of the Coromandel Peninsula on the opposite side. Absolutely gorgeous drive into the small, rural town of Kaiaua, where EcoQuest is located. EcoQuest is a small campus made up of the various cabins students live in, the Wharekai, where we meet for indoor class and eat our meals, Granny’s the student hangout house, and the Hub, which houses the library and computer room. EcoQuest also has its own gardens which produces veggies 9 months out of 12 and many fruit trees including tangelos, grapefruit and banana. On the outer edge of campus is a narrow, grassy path that leads to the beach which looks out at the Coromandel, a mountainous peninsula that either looks close or far depending on the lightening/cloudiness. Mornings have been sunny for the most part, which makes for a refreshing and peaceful walk on the beach. One of these days soon I’ll have to catch a sunrise from the beach with the sun rising up from the mountains of the Coromandel.