Sefton Darby is frustrated. New Zealand’s coalition government has announced a minerals strategy and changes to the resource consent framework – aka the Fast-track Approvals Bill – that are driving intense debate about the country’s mining future. But he feels no one is communicating.
“Both sides are just shouting past each other without realising they’re not having the same debate,” he says.
Darby is an interesting character. Raised by conservationist parents, he has worked in the mining industry for 20 years. Moving from the World Bank investigating corruption in mining in developing countries to external relations for an opencast mine in Waihi, he eventually became the New Zealand government’s national minerals manager. He’s now based in Australia, but keeps his finger on the pulse about mining on this side of the ditch. And in his view, there are two different debates going on.
On one hand, Resources Minister Shane Jones and the sector itself say we need to be tapping into our natural resource deposits and extracting the critical minerals used to build clean energy technologies.
Demand is clearly growing for those minerals. But environmentalists, on the other hand, say this is being used to mask something more sinister – a desire to expand the industry for pure economic gain without ensuring protection of the country’s natural capital, biodiversity and conservation estate.
It’s not difficult to see how that conclusion is drawn. Jones is a brash, outspoken character who relies on impassioned rhetoric to capture attention. “Mining is coming back,” he declared to Parliament in December, adding that if an endangered frog stood in the way of a mine, “goodbye, Freddie.”
But with billions of dollars and environmental protections at stake, this is not a debate that will be settled easily. And with the two sides speaking past each other, as Darby says, it’s tough to identify a consensus – or whether a middle ground on the issue is even possible.
SOUGHT-AFTER MINERALS
Josie Vidal, chief executive of mining advocacy group Straterra, says there’s hardly a debate worth having. The world is transitioning towards
