Speaking after the gold-prospecting company’s first community engagement meeting in Tarras on Monday, Sustainable Tarras represenative Rob van der Mark said he came away feeling “none the wiser” and wondered if Santana’s attempts to get its fast-track application done by February was “a bit rushed”.
Sustainable Tarras is a lobby group formed several years ago to oppose Christchurch Airport and has since turned its energies to opposing the mine.
Mr van der Mark said the group would not only like Santana Minerals to slow down, but it had a “huge list” of questions it wanted answered.
“It is such a huge list. This story is so multifaceted. It [the future mine] is going to be a huge industrialisation of the landscape.
“There will be a massive tailing dam, and what impact will that have on Shepherd’s Creek, the local aquifers, the Lindis and Clutha Rivers? Water is an issue, so are carbon emissions, diesel use, electricity use … housing for workers, support services are already stretched in Cromwell … the noise will be tremendous. There are a whole host of concerns, including the reputation of the wine industry being within an industrial landscape,” he said.
Santana said in July it was also preparing consent applications under the Resource Management Act and would use that process instead, if it needed to.
Chief executive Damian Spring last week told the Cromwell Community Board the company was on track to get its fast-track application for a 25-year resource consent completed by February.
A series of community engagement meetings began this week and will continue in Tarras and Cromwell every Monday until December 9.
Grape grower Mr van der Mark said he left the first meeting feeling concerned Santana “has put themselves under this massive time pressure because of fast track”.
Santana’s gold discovery near Tarras had the potential to become the largest new goldmining development in New Zealand, operating over multiple decades.
For that reason, Sustainable Tarras was urging Santana to release substantially more information as soon it was available, and not hold it back from independent analysis.
