Kate Selby Smith strides through the undergrowth of a track on the North Island’s east coast when the bush suddenly thins to reveal a hidden treasure. “Welcome to my heaven,” she says, gesturing to a bend in the Wharekirauponga stream where a jade-green swimming hole has formed among the rocks and soft green ferns. “Isn’t it beautiful?”
The fairytale grotto lies at the southern end of Coromandel forest park – a protected conservation area home to native flora and rare animals, including one of the world’s rarest amphibians, the Archey’s frog.
Like other locals, Selby Smith brings her family to the pool to swim and explore. But she worries for its future. Further up the valley lies another kind of treasure that has attracted the interest of the government and a multibillion-dollar mining company: gold.
New Zealand is embarking on a major mining expansion. A controversial new fast-track law is pushing through projects designed to spur economic growth, alarming groups who say the country’s unique biodiversity and natural resources are under threat.
“That legislation is egregiously damaging … for New Zealand’s environment,” says Gary Taylor, the chief executive of the Environmental Defence Society.
“It’s heavily stacked against the environment and in favour of development – in all my years of working as an environmental advocate, I’ve never seen anything like it.”
For many living in New Zealand – where a deep connection to nature is regularly cited as being an important part of personal and collective identities – the mining strategy undermines a path towards a greener future. They argue it also runs counter to New Zealand’s self-image as a wild and pristine place. The country famously promotes itself to the world as “100% pure” and “clean, green”. Yet to others, the law represents a much-needed boost to the economy. The Minerals Council chief executive, Josie Vidal, says mining is “one of the most productive sectors in New Zealand, which translates into high wages”.
Zombie projects reawaken
The rightwing coalition government has promised to restart offshore oil and last week set aside $200m of its budget to invest in gas exploration. It plans to boost mineral exports to $3bn by 2035, at the same time it has slashed funding to conservation and climate initiatives. It has also proposed a law change to make it easier for companies to kill protected wildlife in order to pursue certain infrastructure projects. The direction marked a departure from the Jacinda Ardern-led government, which banned new offshore oil and gas exploration and promised to ban new mines on conservation land.
The coalition’s fast-track law – a “one-stop shop” for infrastructure and mining projects deemed nationally significant – passed into law in 2024 amid anger that it bypasses environmental regulations, shuts out public consultation and throws a lifeline to so-called zombie projects that have been rejected in the courts and languishing for years. The government says the process will include a description of the project’s impacts on the environment, which the decision-making panel must consider.
Nearly 150 projects are moving through the fast-track process, including 11 gold, mineral sands and coalmining proposals. They include new mines and expansions to existing projects. Some are generating controversy, including a plan to mine iron sands off Taranaki’s seabed previously rejected by the supreme court, and two mines in the South Island’s west coast: a goldmine critics fear will threaten rare birds, and a coalmine on ecologically significant land.
The fight for Waihi
The fast-track law prompted thousands to march in protest in 2024 and nearly 30,000 public submissions on the bill. Now, targeted protests are springing up around some of the proposed mining sites, including in Selby Smith’s beloved Coromandel area.
Mining company OceanaGold is hoping to dig a nearly 7km tunnel 200 metres beneath the Wharekirauponga forest in Coromandel, which forms part of a large conservation estate, to mine roughly 34-45 tonnes of gold worth about $5bn.
The project is an expansion of the company’s existing operations in the nearby historic goldmining town of Waihi and will also include a new open-pit mine, increased storage for tailings – a slurry of ground-up rock that contains oxidised minerals and cyanide – and upgraded infrastructure.
Local environment group Coromandel Watchdog – of which Selby Smith is a member – opposes the proposal and has led multiple protest actions against it.
The group worries that underground mining blasts will affect Archey’s frogs, who sense the world through vibrations. It is also concerned that water-dredging and rock crushing could reshape the underground water systems and release pollutants that could spread downstream, and tailings storage will leave a toxic legacy for future generations.
OceanaGold rejects these concerns, saying the project will be a “win-win”.
Alison Paul, the miner’s manager for legal and corporate affairs, says “the right projects in the right place can ultimately achieve both the protection of [the] environment and economic growth”.
Paul says OceanaGold’s modelling shows vibrations from blasting will have a limited impact on the frogs, and the company’s 600-hectare pest-control programme in the amphibian’s habitat will give back to the conservation estate. Sucking out underground water to stop the mine flooding will do little damage to the natural waterways, she says, adding that should high risks develop, the company could stop its project.
The tailings dams, she says, are highly engineered to withstand the forces of nature for generations to come. Furthermore, the project will bring jobs to the region and produce export income for New Zealand, Paul says.(TG).