The government’s Fast-track Approvals legislation has returned the likelihood of seabed mining off the shores of South Taranaki to the table, despite numerous rulings by courts against an application by mining company Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR).
It promises economic benefits to the region and the government, but at what cost? Reporter Leigh-Mārama McLachlan travelled to Pātea to meet the locals for TVNZ’s Marae.
Watch the full report on TVNZ+
Local iwi Ngāti Ruanui has led a successful campaign to stop a major corporation from mining in the area for more than a decade, but new life has been breathed into the application submitted by Australian-owned TTR to mine iron sands offshore in the South Taranaki Bight.
TTR has proposed deploying a crawler device to dredge up 50 million tonnes of iron sands, mining an area the size of 9,000 rugby fields. The sand will be processed onboard a specialised barge to remove iron particles with the remaining material returned to the seabed.
The proposed area for mining is 22km off the coast of Pātea.
Growing up next to the ocean and river, kaumātua and iwi leader Ngapari Nui has a strong connection with the water. “We’re all brought up in the beach, [it] was our place to go to whether it was swimming or fishing,” he said.
Nui has concerns “like everybody else” about the impact on the environment and locals’ pātaka kai.
“It’s very important to us as the mana whenua, kaitiaki o te awa and our moana.”
Rachel Arnott, kaiwhakahaere of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui, said there are questions around the impact of seabed sediment dumping on rare marine life – such as the Maui’s dolphins and blue pygmy whale – and ecosystem.
“That’s our pātaka – where’s our pātaka got to go? Is it going to survive? We don’t know, they don’t know.”
Arnott said the iwi has spent thousands of dollars fighting this in the courts.
“It actually all started in 2013 when they lodged their first application, and obviously we went through the Court of Appeal, we’ve been through Supreme Court, we’ve been to the High Court, and we’ve won all those cases in the last ten years.”
She said despite the “mamae” and “trauma”, successfully arguing their case in court was “an awesome win” for the iwi and community, and it was rewarding to know their opinions mattered.
That all changed at the last election when the coalition government came into power, and in 2024, TTR’s application was added to the new Fast-track Approvals Act, putting it back on the table.
“We thought [the court cases] would be the end of it,” said Nui.
Fast-track approvals process
Now they have to prepare to fight again, he said.
Last week, TTR’s application passed the first phase of the fast-track approvals process and will now be considered by an expert panel.
What should be considered are the last three court cases the iwi won, said Arnott.
“It’s our moana. We have to protect that, so it’s really, really a shame that the fast-tracking bill that the Government has put in place has allowed TTR to come back at us.”
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was the former chief executive of Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Ruanui in 2013 when TTR first came on the scene. She said it was “pretty easy” to know that the iwi would never support their application to mine the seabed.
“Effectively, what it’s looking to do is to mine up our papamoana, to take out the mineral that they can sell and then put 49 million tonnes of sludge into our moana for 35 years, up and down Te Taihauāuru coast.”
Now politicians have had a hand in opening a backdoor for an activity that no courts would support, she said.
Resource Minister and Minister for Oceans and Fisheries Shane Jones said the decisions made about the seabed mining case only delayed pitting the “emotional concerns” of the seabed against science and technology.
“Look, I got to remind everyone, this coast seabed has already been studied, including by NIWA. There is nothing particularly extraordinary about it.
“It is bog standard seabed that represents a chance for the region to generate jobs and make money, and to suggest that somehow it’s got some biblical significance is a distortion of the facts.”
Protect the marine environment
TTR said it proposed a set of conditions to protect the marine environment, reefs, kaimoana and marine mammals.
It said independent experts believed their plans would ensure the project avoids material harm to the environment. A $1 billion capital investment would deliver 1,125 jobs across the Taranaki Region and Whanganui District, spending $234 million annually across a range of local industries.
It’s welcome news to Jones who is also the Regional Development Minister. He said some of the poorest whānau Māori are from Taranaki.
“With the disappearance of oil and gas, with the restrictions around dairy, with the slow recovery of tourism, Taranaki whānau need a new horizon of economic opportunity. And we should trust the science and technology, and the quality of professional judgement of the panel.
“A billion dollars’ worth of export receipts, $250 million dollars of earning for the Crown, $70 million of that may very well be made available through shared royalties to Taranaki.”
When asked why the iwi would turn down that level of investment, Arnott said there are better ways to go about economic development that will have less impact on the environment.
“We’re still kaitiaki. We have to ensure that it’s here for our future generations.”
Ngarewa-Packer said the fight has always been about protecting whakapapa.
“Our moana isn’t an economic body, it is a living taonga that we were raised and understand [it to be] part of us and we’re part of our moana and our whakapapa.”
The iwi met recently to reaffirm their commitment to continue to fight.
“We have to have some hope,” said Arnott, “and I honestly believe that that’s where we’re going to go. There’s also protesting, we could be out there in boats, we could block them. We’ll be doing 110% of anything we can do, we will do.
“No matter what. That’s what it means to our people. That’s what it means to our uri.”
Watch the full Marae report on TVNZ+
