Miner’s Monthly: April 2022

Minerals West Coast Annual Forum set for late June 2022

Minerals West Coast’s annual forum is set to be held in Reefton in late June 2022.

Due to Covid-19 alert level restrictions, the annual forum could not be held as planned in October last year. Venue details are still being confirmed, but at the time of writing the forum will held in the last week of June – the week starting Monday the 27th of June.

More information will be made available to Minerals West Coast members in the coming weeks as details are confirmed.

‘Coal in New Zealand’ campaign reach 2.4 million hits

Minerals West Coast began its “Coal in New Zealand” campaign in November last year, and actively promoted video content on social media channels such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok to raise awareness of coal in New Zealand. This content was supported by an extensive website to provide further detail and information to support the videos and to serve as a more in-depth resource.

When active promotion of these videos ended in mid-March, the combined total views across all platforms was about 2.4 million. The website accrued about 11,000 hits in the same period. 

National Parks biggest risk for minerals sector in stewardship land review

The Department of Conservation is looking at how to review and reclassify stewardship land under its management.

The biggest threat this may present to the mining industry is if parcels of stewardship land are reclassified as National Park, meaning they will effectively be out of access for the mining industry.

This was the main theme of Minerals West Coast’s submission, which can be found below.

Minerals West Coast submission on One District plan

The Buller, Grey, and Westland District councils are together working to put together a combined district plan for the West Coast.

In March, the planning committee sought feedback on an exposure draft put out for consultation.

Minerals West Coast lodged provided its feedback on the draft. This feedback is available below.