MINER'S MONTHLY: AUGUST 2022

Strong turnout for Reefton forum

Gold exploration, the future of the West Coast’s domestic and export coal industry, and mineral sands developments were among the line-up at Minerals West Coast’s 2022 forum in Reefton.

About 130 people made it along to the event held at the end of June at the Reefton Community Centre.

Presentations on the afternoon of the 29th of June started with a look at gold mining on the West Coast. This included updates from Mark Le Messurier of Federation Mining on the company’s progress re-establishing gold production from the Birthday Reef near Waiuta, as well as presentations from Paul Angus of Siren Gold and Simon Henderson of Reefton Gold, both of whom are undertaking exploration work in the Reefton gold fields.

The final presentation from gold producers was delivered remotely by Jayde Van Dissel of Elect Mining, who explained his company’s development and use of remote controlled winch technology on its new floating gold screen.

The second half of the Wednesday session of Minerals West Coast forum focussed on coal mines in the region.

Eamon Moynihan, manager of Francis Mining’s Echo Mine near Reefton, led the charge. He was followed by Rob Boyd of Bathurst Resources, who delivered his remote presentation on the emissions consequences of switching from coal to wood based fuels for industrial energy users.

Lincoln Smith of Terra Firma then presented on his company’s plans to reopen Spring Creek underground coal mine near Greymouth. The Wednesday session was concluded with a company update from Richard Tacon of Bathurst Resources, who spoke about the West Coast export operations at Stockton, and other operations throughout New Zealand.

The second day of the forum followed a late night for some attendants at Dawson’s Hotel and Restaurant in Reefton.

The second day of the forum followed a late night for some attendants at Dawson’s Hotel and Restaurant in Reefton.

Tom Ritchie of Westland Mineral Sands opened the second day of the event, as the company looks to enter its production phase later in 2022. He was followed by Pat Cooper of Cooper’s Drilling Services, who talked through his recent experience opening and operating a quarry north of Westport. Fabian Hartley of Alton Drilling then spoke through the company’s operations drilling on the West Coast and in other areas of New Zealand.

Mark Bowater, author of Crimes Against Mine Planning, then gave his speech on his new book, and the pitfalls of mine planning, and how to do it well.

Bernie Napp of Prospect Consulting concluded the first half of the Thursday morning session with a presentation on the growing need for sustainability reporting as mining companies come under greater pressure to demonstrate expectations of social and environmental performance are being met.

The final session of the day started with Steph Hayton of OceanaGold explaining the company’s development of a passive water treatment as mine closure and restoration progresses at Globe-Progress mine near Reefton.

This presentation was followed by Paul Berry of the Paparoa Wildlife Trust, a community organisation that carries out predator control in the Paparoa Ranges, largely supported by Roa Mining.

Then Megan Wilson of OceanaGold and Rachel Fifield, who works in socio-economic development for the Buller District Council, presented on OceanaGold’s mine closure work and Rachel’s development work that has been funded by OceanaGold.

The final two presentations of the day focussed on policy and regulations. Dave Bellett of WorkSafe updated attendants on the implications for alluvial goldmines and quarries of being brought into the mining and quarrying regulations of the Health and Safety at Work Act.

A joint presentation from New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals staff ended the day, with an explanation of new compliance regulations, penalties, and other enforcement tools, as well as an update on permit application processing.

Minerals West Coast would like to thank all presenters, volunteers who assisted their time to the event, sponsors, caterers, venue staff, and attendants for turning up on the day and making the event a success.

Overall, the forum was a successful event, and Minerals West Coast looks forward to holding its next forum in 2023.

New chairperson for Minerals West Coast

At the same time as Minerals West Coast’s forum was held in Reefton, the organisation’s annual general meeting also took place.

After five years at the helm, Glenys Perkins of Tailored Energy Solutions stood down as chairperson of Minerals West Coast. Glenys said after giving everything she could to the role in the time she has held it, it’s time to hand it over to somebody new.

Trustees and members present at the AGM elected Richard Tacon of Bathurst Resources as Minerals West Coast’s new chairperson. Richard brings decades of experience in the mining industry in New Zealand and Australia and looks forward to leading the trust. He said it will take a lot to replace Glenys but hopes he can make the necessary contribution to Minerals West Coast to allow the region’s mining industry to realise its full potential.

Minerals West Coast submits on stewardship land review

The Department of Conservation is in the process of reclassifying a significant portion of all public conservation land classified as stewardship land in the West Coast region.

Part of this process has involved a national review panel and mana whenua panel working alongside each other and making recommendations on separate blocks of stewardship land for reclassification as other categories of public conservation land – for example conservation parks, ecological areas, national parks, scenic reserves etc.

In total the panels are reviewing 504 separate parcels of land, with a total area of 644,015.7 hectares.

Minerals West Coast’s submission focussed on the process as a whole, not individual blocks of land. If miners wish to focus on specific parcels that effect their operations, submissions are not due until the 23rd of August.

Minerals West Coast’s full submission can be found below.

Minerals West Coast submits on National Policy Statement Indigenous Biodiversity

New Zealand’s government is pressing on with a national policy statement for indigenous biodiversity under the Resource Management Act. Among other things, this will involve the introduction of new rules effecting significant natural areas.

The recent draft will allow for mining in significant natural areas under certain conditions, but the full impact will not be known until the draft is finalised.

Minerals West Coast’s full submission can be found below.

National MP Stuart Smith visits West Coast mines

In June Minerals West Coast hosted a visit from National Party members of parliament Stuart Smith and Maureen Pugh. Stuart Smith is the National Party’s spokesperson for energy and resources. Stuart was joined by his advisor, Kishan Niran.

After some weather related disruptions effecting the first half of the trip, Stuart, Kishan, and Maureen met with Minerals West Coast to visit Federation Mining’s underground operation at Snowy River.

After staying overnight in Reefton, Stuart, Maureen, and Kishan visited OceanaGold’s Globe-Progress mine to see the site’s closure works, before driving through to Westport to visit Bathurst Resources’ office in town for an insight into the company’s Stockton operations.

The visit concluded with a site visit to Pat Cooper’s quarry at Jones Creek north of Westport before Stuart and Kishan flew out of Westport Airport.

Minerals West Coast thanks Stuart for his interest in the sector and the region and looks forward to hosting more visits from politicians of all parties in the near future.

Talking coal with One News and Newstalk ZB

Since November 2021 Minerals West Coast has been working online and across social media platforms to raise awareness of the ongoing role for coal in New Zealand to support New Zealand food production, steel and cement manufacturing, and electricity generation, among other sectors.

In July, One News picked up on this issue, and covered the conflict between addressing New Zealand’s greenhouse gas emissions and the present cost of living crisis.

Minerals West Coast manager, Patrick Phelps, met Auckland base reporter, Logan Church, at Bathurst Resources’ Rotowaro Mine in the Waikato, which supplies North Island customers like Genesis Energy and New Zealand Steel. The story is available below. It may be better to watch the story directly on OneNews's website by clicking here.

Following the One News coverage, Newstalk ZB took an interest in the issue. Patrick spoke to Simon Barnett and Tyler Adams on Newstalk ZB afternoons in depth, answering questions to listeners phoning into the station to ask questions about coal. The full interview can be listened to below.

Economics of mining with Bryan Crump on RNZ Nights

Every two and half months Minerals West Coast’s manager, Patrick Phelps, talks mining on RNZ Nights with Bryan Crump.

In the most recent slot, Patrick explained the opportunities mining’s high productivity and wages provide regions like the West Coast.

 The full interview can be heard below.

Security seminar RockIT remote security solutions

Minerals West Coast was recently contacted by Allied Locks and RockIT, who will be holding seminars on the West Coast next week to talk through their smart lock technology that is used to protect remote work sites with security needs.

These sessions will be held in Greymouth on the 17th of August from 11:00am to 12:00pm, Hokitika from 2:30pm to 3:30pm.

An event will be held in Westport on Thursday the 18th of August from 9:00am to 10:00am.

To find out more about these events and to RSVP, please email John Moorhead at john@alliedlocks.co.nz

Bookings will close at the end of the day Friday for Minerals West Coast's 2022 forum. Anyone planning to attend who hasn't registered for tickets already, needs to do so before the end of the day on Friday the 17th of June. For all information about the forum, including full itinerary and ticket purchasing, please visit the page on Minerals West Coast's website by clicking here.

Minerals West Coast is facilitating a mine planning workshop at the Reefton School of Mines on the morning of Wednesday the 29th of June.

The workshop will be run by Mark Bowater, who has more than three decades in mining engineering and management in Australia and authored recently published book Crimes Against Mine Planning.

Mark Bowater's workshop will focus on how to better develop and implement mine plans in order to lift efficiency and productivity. This is achieved by focusing on the leading causes of poor mine planning, and how to address them.

The workshop will be held at the Reefton School of Mines (22 Shiel Street, Reefton) starting at 10:00am on Wednesday the 29th of June, running through till 11:30am.

Registration fees for this event are $50.00 for Minerals West Coast members, and $100 for non-members.

There is limited capacity for this event, so please register if you wish to attend. To do so, please email Patrick at manager@mwc.org.nz

If you have any questions please phone Patrick on 021 238 6846, or email manager@mwc.org.nz

Minerals West Coast is in the process of preparing its submission of recently announced proposals for reclassification of stewardship land on the West Coast.

The scope of this reclassification covers about 850,000 hectares of land, and as such will inevitably capture land that has mineral value - known or unknown.

Some reclassification categories - such as "conservation park", would still allow for mining under existing legislation, unless the government moves to ban mining on public conservation land generally.

For the current consultation, the greatest risk to future mining would be if land were classified as National Park (where mining is effectively prohibited) and, to a certain extent, if stewardship land is reclassified as ecological area.

The table below gives an outline of the areas of stewardship land that have been recommended for reclassification so far - a large area, mainly in South Westland, is yet to have any recommendations made.

About 12% of the area of stewardship land has been recommended for reclassification as National Park, and 1.13% has been recommended for reclassification as ecological area.

The many parcels of land that have been recommended for reclassification cover a large area. As stated above, the reclassification category of greatest concern is National Park, and, to a certain extent ecological area.

While Minerals West Coast will submit against any reclassification of land as National Park, and against reclassification as ecological area on a case by case basis, it would be helpful to have feedback on particular parcels of land that may be of particular known mineral value.

Information explaining the recommendations is available in full on the Department of Conservation's website, and can be found here.

This information can be difficult to manage, and for that reason Minerals West Coast has prepared the below documents as a guide to see what land has been recommended for classification as National Park or ecological area.

Click to download each file, and then simply click the link in the left-hand column for more information about the relevant land parcel.

Please email any information you would like included in Minerals West Coast's submission to manager@mwc.org.nz as soon as possible. Submissions close on the 26th of July.

MINER'S MONTHLY MAY 2022

Miners invited to meet with National Party energy and resources spokesperson, Stuart Smith

On the 13th and 14th of June, Minerals West Coast will host the National Party's spokesperson for energy and resources, Stuart Smith, visiting mines and miners on the West Coast to inform the party's understanding of the mining industry on the West Coast.

Minerals West Coast invites its members, particularly local miners, to meet for lunch with Stuart Smith at 12:30pm on Monday the 13th of June at the Paroa Hotel.

This will be a good opportunity for local operators to share their experiences in the industry and offer suggestions on what policies and regulations would better enable the sector.

If you would like to attend, please email manager@mwc.org.nz to confirm your attendance to ensure there is adequate catering on the day.

Heavy mineral sand mining given the go-ahead in Buller

Westland Mineral Sands secured resource consents in May for the mining of heavy mineral sands near Cape Foulwind outside Westport. The mine is expected to initially employ about forty people, with a concentrate processed at onsite plants before being trucked to the port of Westport for export.

Minerals West Coast manager, Patrick Phelps, spoke on the Mike Hosking Breakfast on Newstalk ZB on the 12th of May to discuss the benefits of the project and what it means for the mining industry and the West Coast region.

Climate Change Emissions budgets released

The government this month released its climate change emission reduction plans. With the exception of confirmation of the government’s intention of banning the use of what, by its definition, are low and medium temperature coal boilers by 2037, there was nothing new relating to the mining industry.

The emissions reduction plans, which outline the reductions in emissions New Zealand will aim to achieve in three five year periods out to 2037, are part of the government’s commitments to reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.

There was no mention in the plans of any legislation specific to the extraction of coal, or anything notable relating to heavy diesel or earthmoving equipment, with the majority of the focus on transport.

Minerals West Coast discusses New Zealand's climate change performance on RNZ

In April, in anticipation of the release of the government's emissions reduction plans, Minerals West Coast manager, Patrick Phelps, discussed New Zealand's performance in emissions reductions over the past three decades on his regular slot on RNZ's evening show Nights with Bryan Crump.

The interview covered some of the reasons New Zealand's emissions have continued to rise in the past three decades while those of other countries have fallen, and the difficulty the country will have in reducing emissions in some sectors.

The full interview can be heard below.

Minerals West Coast forum one month away

Tickets to Minerals West Coast's annual forum are still for sale if you haven't yet registered.

For a full forum itinerary and information on how to register, please visit the page on Minerals West Coast's website by clicking here.

Minerals West Coast is facilitating a mine planning workshop at the Reefton School of Mines on the morning of Wednesday the 29th of June.

The workshop will be run by Mark Bowater, who has more than three decades in mining engineering and management in Australia and authored recently published book Crimes Against Mine Planning.

Mark Bowater's workshop will focus on how to better develop and implement mine plans in order to lift efficiency and productivity. This is achieved by focusing on the leading causes of poor mine planning, and how to address them.

The workshop will be held at the Reefton School of Mines (22 Shiel Street, Reefton) starting at 10:00am on Wednesday the 29th of June, running through till 11:30am.

Registration fees for this event are $50.00 for Minerals West Coast members, and $100 for non-members.

There is limited capacity for this event, so please register if you wish to attend. To do so, please email Patrick at manager@mwc.org.nz

If you have any questions phone 021 238 6846

Minerals West Coast's forum for 2022 will be held in Reefton on Wednesday the 29th and Thursday the 30th of June.

The forum will start from 1:00pm through to about 5:30pm on the Wednesday, before dinner and drinks on the Wednesday night.

The forum will resume about 08:30pm the following morning on Thursday the 30th of June, finishing about midday, with a field trip to mine sites in the Reefton area in the afternoon.

Minerals West Coast is in the process of finalising the itinerary and other details. 

A full rundown of the event will be circulated and tickets made available for purchase no later than Friday the 6th of May.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

MINER'S MONTHLY FEBRUARY 2022

'COAL IN NEW ZEALAND' CAMPAIGN REACHES 1.5 MILLION VIEWS AND COUNTING

A series of videos and online articles explaining the need for coal in New Zealand's basic and essential industries in this country have together accumulated more than 1,500,000 views and counting. The website can be found at www.coal.kiwi.

Following a successful first round of videos explaining coal’s role in electricity generation, food production, and the New Zealand economy, a second round of videos was released in mid-January.

These videos looked at what the required increase in electricity generation from hydroelectricity, wind power, or solar electricity would be needed to replace coal in the electricity sector alone.

How many Clyde Dams would it take to save New Zealand from fossil fuels?

How many wind farms would it take to save New Zealand from fossil fuels?

How many solar panels and batteries would it take to save New Zealand from fossil fuels?

MINERALS WEST COAST FORUM DATE YET TO BE DETERMINED

Minerals West Coast’s forum for 2021 had been postponed for a saved date of 23rd March 2022 prior to the Covid-19 Omicron outbreak and resultant red traffic light settings. Due to the current red traffic light setting, Minerals West Coast will further delay Minerals West Coast's next forum, until it can be planned with greater certainty at a less restrictive traffic light setting - either green or ideally orange.

The red traffic light settings mean that any events held require by law:

• That fewer than 100 people are in attendance
  
• All in attendance have vaccine passports
  
• All delegates observe at least one metre of social distancing
  
• All in attendance be seated while food or drinks are served and consumed
  

Some companies and government departments have policies in place restricting or inhibiting inter-regional travel and/or attendance of events at the red traffic light setting.

Minerals West Coast intends to hold its forum as soon as it is possible to do so. As soon as alert level restrictions allow (most likely following a change in settings) and will make the time, date, and other details known as soon as they are confirmed.

MINING ON CONSERVATION LAND DISCUSSED ON RNZ NIGHTS

The issue of mining on conservation land remains a controversial and unsettled issue ever since the incoming government in late 2017 issued a proclamation in its “speech from the throne” that there would be “no new mines” on public conservation land.

In early 2022 any confirmation about whether this commitment will ever come to pass has yet to be given one way or the other.

In the first of five slots on RNZ’s evening show, Nights,  in 2022, Minerals West Coast’s manager, Patrick Phelps, took the opportunity to discuss plans by OceanaGold to explore for and potentially mine gold underneath Coromandel Forest Park, and in turn the wider topic of mining on public conservation land.

Patrick Phelps's full interview can be listened to below.

The following night, RNZ spoke to former Green Party list MP and chairperson of anti-mining group, Coromandel Watchdog, Catherine Delahunty. The full interview can be found below.

MINING MATTERS #12: THE GOLDMINE AND THE FROG

TE TAI POUTINI PLAN EXPOSURE DRAFT PUBLISHED FOR FEEDBACK

The planners working on the Te Tai o Poutini plan, a single district plan for all three districts on the West Coast, have released the exposure draft for feedback from the wider community.

An outline of the exposure draft, the zones that will exist in the districts and what they will allow or restrict, and the process for giving feedback can be read in the document below.

Minerals West Coast is going to be submitting feedback on the draft plan – if you have any questions or would like to make any comments through Minerals West Coast please contact Patrick Phelps at manager@mwc.org.nz or phone 021 238 6846.

As was notified back in September, Minerals West Coast’s annual forum was not able to go ahead as initially planned in October 2021 due to the uncertainty brought about by Covid-19 and the resulting alert level restrictions at the time.

Minerals West Coast intends to hold its forum in March 2022, with a provisional date of Wednesday the 23rd of March for the forum, and a field trip on Thursday the 24th of March.

These dates may change, but pencil them into your diary for now if you are interested in attending our delayed October 2021 forum in March 2022. Details like the venue, final dates, and an itinerary will be confirmed early in the new year.

Fill out the RSVP below to register your interest in attending Minerals West Coast’s 2022 forum in March.

The Department of Conservation’s review of Stewardship land is to be carried out in 2022. Stewardship land amounts to about 10% of New Zealand’s land area and 44% the West Coast’s land area (as part of the 82% of the West Coast protected as public conservation land).

Much of the Stewardship land on the West Coast is held in very large parcels – see the table below for reference. Some of these parcels are adjacent to National Parks and there is a risk that if these parcels are added to National Park they will be captured by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, which specifies areas of land in New Zealand (including, but not limited to National Parks) where mining permits cannot be obtained.

There are two panels preparing advice for the minister of conservation on how to proceed with reclassification of Stewardship land, and this advice will be given to the minister after eight months. Once these recommendations have been received and given the due attention from the minister, the matter will go out for public consultation.  

In May this year the government received submissions on its fourth round of consultation on removing coal and natural gas from industrial process heat since early 2019. A fifth consultation has been conducted since.

The government announced yesterday that it will delay making any decision on the matters consulted on – namely using the Resource Management Act to ban coal use for many industrial users – until late 2022.

A full story on this is available on RNZ’s website, here. To read Minerals West Coast’s submission lodged at the time, read the below document.

Minerals West Coast’s amalgamation with the West Coast Commercial Goldminers’ Association has been finalised, with both organisations forming one entity – Minerals West Coast.

Financial assets have been consolidated, and the West Coast Commercial Goldminers’ Association is in the process of being disbanded. Minerals West Coast’s board currently has strong representation from alluvial goldminers, including Brett Cummings, former president of the West Coast Commercial Goldminers’ Association.

High gold production on the West Coast on the back of high gold prices caught the attention of both RNZ and Magic Talk in November, with both radio stations covering the increased production levels and price per ounce on air.

Minerals West Coast manager Patrick Phelps, and trustee, Peter Haddock, featured in a piece put together by RNZ reporter Conan Young. The full story can be heard below.

Following that story, Patrick Phelps spoke to Lloyd Burr on Magic Talk’s Lloyd Burr Live show.

The interview can be found at in the playback below from the 02:24:30 onward.

Minerals West Coast last month launched it’s Coal in New Zealand website (www.coal.kiwi) and associated videos on social media.

At the time of writing (23rd of December 2021) the three videos have amassed over 300,000 views on Facebook and YouTube. Analytics from these platforms shows the majority of viewers are in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch, aged between 25-44.

MINER'S MONTHLY NOVEMBER 2021

Annual general meeting held held in Reefton

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Minerals West Coast's annual general meeting held in Reefton at the end of October gave members a chance to review the annual report and financial statements, elect representatives to the board, and get an update on recent and upcoming activities of Minerals West Coast. The meeting itself was followed by two presentations: the first from New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, the second from MinEx.

The election of trustees and appointments/reappointments to the board means Minerals West Coast's board now consists of the following elected representatives:

• Glenys Perkins, Tailored Energy Solutions (chairwoman of Minerals West Coast, reelected)
• Sue Attwood, Placer Global (trustee, reelected)
• Pat Cooper, Coopers Drilling Services (trustee, reelected)
• Brett Cummings, Amalgamated Mining (trustee, reelected)
• Peter Haddock, Mill Creek Mining (trustee, reelected)
• Geoff Jacobs, Paramount Mining (trustee, elected)
• Peter O'Sullivan, Tai Poutini Polytechnic (trustee, reelected)
• Lincoln Smith, Terra Firma (trustee, elected)
• Dave Stone, Rosco Contractors Limited (trustee, reelected)
• Richard Tacon, Bathurst Resources (trustee, elected)

The financial statements and annual report, along with the minutes of the AGM, will be circulated directly to Minerals West Coast’s members.

Minerals West Coast wishes to once again thank CablePrice for its sponsorship of the evening's dinner and drinks.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals update

Following the end of the formal annual general meeting, New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals joined the meeting via a Zoom link to discuss efforts the agency (which operates within the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment). The staff who joined via video link included:

• Sarah Kenward (manager of mineral operations)
• Tim Journeaux (principal minerals advisor)
• Jeanette Walker (senior minerals advisor)
• Susan Baas (national manager of minerals and petroleum)

The presentation began with an explanation of the makeup of the permissions team, which includes about eight or nine minerals advisors who process applications, before going into permit applications and processing.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals explained (as is shown in the below chart) that there was a significant increase in applications for new permits about May-June 2020 due largely to heightened gold prices through the Covid-19 pandemic unfolding, and increased interest in gold mining as a result.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals staff explained that of its team of seven minerals advisors (which has recently grown to nine with the recruitment of two new staff) one advisor will be responsible for processing about 8-10 applications at once, and the remainder of applications will stay unassigned until there is an advisor free to process them. About the time of the meeting there were 200 unassigned permits in the queue, the majority of which were tier 2 exploration permits.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals staff said of the 200 unassigned applications, all have received an initial assessment and been deemed "complete" before being added to the queue. During this initial stage of assessment, some permits are given priority as "urgent", or added to the queue as unassigned applications until there is an advisor free to process them.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals staff said (as can be seen above) while processing performance has improved in recent months, with increased output on a quarterly basis, it hasn't been enough to clear the entire backlog in the queue due to the number of applications coming in.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals staff credited the increased productivity to some measures it has taken within the agency, the recruitment of new staff, and better guidance to (and communications with) permit applicants and permit holders.

One piece of communication New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals recently issued was a list of common mistakes for permit applicants, which is included below:

Other initiatives New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals will be trialing in the near future include an accelerated approach to straightforward applications - namely complete, with all the information, and likely to be granted, to get such applications through the system as quickly as possible.

New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals said the combination of different measures taken have together increased performance, and the agency will continue to identify and implement measures to increase efficiency, but that there are no silver bullets.

MinEx on impact on alluvial mines and quarries coming into mining regulations

Following the presentation from New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, MinEx chief executive, Wayne Scott, addressed those attending to explain what changes there will be for alluvial mines and quarries as a result of such operations now being included in the Health and Safety at Work Act's mining and quarrying regulations - until now they have been exempt.

These changes will likely be implemented in February 2022, with a two year transition period. A summary is shown below, along with the new definition of a principal hazard, and the impacts on quarries and alluvial gold operations.

Wayne Scott explained one of the most significant changes will be that all siteswill be required to have a health and safety management system.

WorkSafe will be running information workshops around the country in 2022, and MinEx will develop templates, examples, and guidance for sites as they move to operating under the new requirements.

Wayne Scott invited all those who are not yet in the MinEx database or on the mailing system to join via MinEx's website - www.minex.org.nz

Submission lodged on review of freshwater policies

Earthworks in wetlands - such as mining - were classified as prohibited activities under the Resource Management Act as a result of the government's freshwater reforms.

While this has not yet changed, the government is in the process of reviewing those reforms to consider creating a consenting pathway for earthworks in wetlands - including for resource extraction, but also extending to urban development and infrastructure - provided there is no net loss for wetlands overall.

Last month, the government received submissions after a round of policy consultation on the issue.

Minerals West Coast's submission can be found in full below:

Minerals West Coast launches Coal in New Zealand campaign

In an effort to raise awareness about the role of coal in New Zealand now and in years to come, Minerals West Coast has this month launched a series of online videos and a dedicated website "Coal in New Zealand" in a bid to increase the wider New Zealand public's understanding of coal use in New Zealand, and why it is not easily replaced. These videos can be seen below, and on the www.coal.kiwi website.

Patrick Phelps and Bryan Crump talk tourism and mining for last radio slot of the year

For his fourth and final ten-weekly slot on RNZ Nights with Bryan Crump,  Minerals West Coast's manager, Patrick Phelps, had a look at whether the idea the West Coast should look to tourism instead of mining as way of making a living actually stands up to much scrutiny.

The full interview can be found below: