The New Zealand Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rejected BT Mining’s fast-tracked application for its Buller Plateaux Continuation coking coal project because the company failed to address land rights and wildlife concerns.
BT Mining – a joint venture between Bathurst Resources and Talley’s Energy – needs to address technical issues related to wildlife approval and a reserve manager’s consent, Bathurst Resources told investors on 24 September.
The joint venture plans to address the EPA’s concerns and resubmit its application in short order, the company said.
BT Mining expects to produce 20 million tonnes of coal over 25 years at the Buller Plateaux Continuation Project. It usually sells coal on long-term contracts and has little impact on spot coal markets, according to a trader with knowledge of the situation.
The joint venture sells Buller coal to Japanese, Indian, and South Korean steelmakers, as well as a range of New Zealand producers, according to Bathurst Resources. Buller coal has a low ash content and is often blended with other coal, the company has said.
Forest and Bird called on the EPA to reject BT Mining over wildlife issues on 18 September.
“The application’s lizard management plan admits that, despite an understanding that Department of Conservation best practice lizard management constitutes salvaging more than 80 percent, [BT Mining] expects that fewer than one percent of lizards will be feasibly salvaged,” Forest and Bird said.
“We’d suggest the EPA also look at the application’s lack of protection for the Avatar moth [, which] would most likely become extinct if the mining went ahead,” Forest & Bird Denniston Spokesperson Scott Burnett said.
The New Zealand Government agreed to fast-track BT Mining’s Buller project in 2024. Fast-tracked consent applications are assessed by expert panels, rather than local and regional councils. The Government has primarily used fast-track processes to support mines, housing developments, and infrastructure projects.
Resources Minister Shane Jones wants to use Crown regulatory and planning powers to stem the tide of regional deindustrialisation, he told Lithos – in his capacity as New Zealand First Energy Spokesperson – during a wide-ranging interview on 11 September.
“There is [an] … anxiety and that is deindustrialisation, and that is the hollowing out of industry, and that is the rising level of unemployment. So [New Zealand First] want to try something different. And do it at such a level that we can have a mix of interventions,” Jones said.
New Zealand First’s special economic zone (SEZ) plan will support mineral-rich areas along the South Island’s West Coast, where BT Mining’s Buller coal project is based, according to Jones. An SEZ could promote mining investment and growth in the West Coast by removing planning barriers since 83% of the region sits on public conservation land, Jones told Lithos.
“Our policy [on West Coast environmental legislation] is to restructure [the Department of Conservation (DOC)] and to ensure that economic potential is a statutory obligation upon DOC, not just preservationist ideologies. [But] the area where, obviously, Kiwis do not want mining is in the national parks,” Jones said.
By Avinash Govind