make your voice heard - government changes to the crown minerals act

Changes to crown minerals act:
​what you need to know

The government is making changes to the Crown Minerals Act. This will effect all miners on the West Coast. It's vital West Coast miners make their voices heard in Wellington.
The government is not giving much time. The deadline for the submissions is Friday the 20th of December 2019.

Minerals WEST COAST'S SUBMISSION ON PROPOSED CHANGES

Minerals West Coast will be submitting on behalf of our members and any other parties who wish to make their voices heard. We will be holding meetings in Ross, Hokitika, Reefton, Westport, and Greymouth during the week starting Monday the 2nd of December through to Friday the 6th. Details on the submissions roadshow are available at the bottom of the page. If you can't make it but still wish to contribute please get in touch. If you wish to make a submission as a business or an individual, Minerals West Coast is happy to help.

a BREAKDOWN OF THE DISCUSSION DOCUMENT

Click here to read in full the discussion document released this week. 

It is made up of eight chapters, some of which are not relevant to West Coast miners as they relate to the petroleum industry and marine/offshore issues. The chapters relevant to miners are summarised below.

Chapter One: Role and purpose statement
This chapter outlines what submitters think should be the role and purpose of the Crown Minerals Act. The main points are:

• Whether other factors should be considered when granting a permit (social, environmental etc).
• Whether the purpose statement should be changed from "the purpose of the Act is to promote prospecting for, exploration for, and mining of Crown owned minerals for the benefit of New Zealand". There's a big emphasis on whether the word promote should be changed to "manage", or "administer", or something else. They seem very hung up on this one.

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Chapter Four: Community participation
The guts of this chapter is whether the public should have more say in permits being granted. We'll be arguing strongly against this. 

Chapter Five: Maori engagement and involvement
This chapter focuses on what the government can do to increase Maori engagement with permit holders. There seems to be an assumption within the questions that Maori are opposed to mining. We plan to engage with local Iwi, and seek feedback from our members on their experiences, what works, and what can be improved. 

Chapter Six: Compliance and enforcement
This chapter discusses new regulations and powers that may come into the Act. This covers changes to regulations, penalties for offences, cancelling licenses, and record keeping. 

Chapter Eight: Technical amendments
There are several proposed changes that will effect our industry in good ways and bad if they become law. 

• Updating the process for serving notices and documentation within the CMA - this is to ensure information sent from New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has been received by the intended recipient.
• Including a high level environmental capability assessment for a change of permit operator for Tier 1 permits.
• Annual Summary Reports will be done electronically.
• Processes for appointing an arbitrator in relation to land access - that is to say when a land access agreement can't be reached between a party who has permits for prospecting, exploration, or mining, and the person who owns/occupies the land.
• Scrapping the yearly reassessment of permit status (deciding whether it's Tier 1 or Tier 2) by the Minister to reduce administrative burdens for both the government and permit holders.
• All prospecting permits will be Tier 2 only, regardless of the mineral.
• Proactively releasing information available to the public. Information that is confidential under the present Act will remain confidential. What is being proposed is that to have more transparency, information the public can access by request under the current law will be released proactively under the new law. 
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MINERALS WEST COAST SUBMISSIONS ROADSHOW

As discussed, the deadline for these submissions very tight. About four weeks in total, or twenty four working days. Given the time limits, Minerals West Coast will be holding small evening meetings with miners in main West Coast mining towns to gain as much input as possible from our members. Venues will be confirmed as soon as possible, but the times and dates for each townships are listed below to allow anyone interested in attending to make arrangements. 

Monday, 2nd of December: Ross - 7:30pm
Ross community hall
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Tuesday, 3rd of December: Hokitika - 7:30pm
West Rugby club rooms (next to Cass Square) 
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Wednesday, 4th of December: Reefton - 7:30pm
OceanaGold, Green Shed, Hattie Street
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Thursday, 5th of December: Westport - 7:30pm
Old GeoTech building next to Charleston Lodge
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Friday, 6th of December: Greymouth - 7:30pm
Marshall and Heaphy Boardrooms, 64 High Street, Greymouth

If you have any questions, please contact Patrick Phelps by either phone (021 238 6846) or email at manager@mwc.org.nz

THIS WILL EFFECT OUR SECTOR AND OUR REGION, SPEAK UP TO MAKE SURE OUR VOICE IS HEARD in wellington