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Mining in the 21^st Century – new resources, new science, new technology, new challenges

A list of New Zealand's resources includes oil and gas, coal, gold and other metals, aggregates, industrial minerals and geothermal energy resources. Methods of extraction cover opencast and underground mines on land, wells and dredging offshore, as well as quarries and other methods of extracting resources from rivers and along our coasts.

New fields are emerging in the area of resources, science and technology. Some are covered on this page to illustrate the expanding future of the resource sector in New Zealand.

Link to Rio Tinto's project - The Mine Of The Future - drone machinery in the Pilbaras operated from control screens 1300km away in Perth.     

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) ) is attracting funding in the billions of dollars as part of global efforts to address greenhouse gas emissions.  It is widely accepted that if the global response to the increase in atmospheric GHG is to be successful, then CCS has a vital role to play in the portfolio of technologies to be deployed. The New Zealand Government and industry are working with Australia on research to support commercial scale CCS.     

Coal Seam Gas (CSG) is a form of natural gas occurring naturally in deep coal seams that could potentially add to New Zealand’s gas supply. The gas is thought to form naturally by the action of bacteria living deep underground in coal seams. Solid Energy New Zealand has been working on extracting CSG in commercial quantities from the Waikato coal fields since 2007, for use in electricity generation. There is considered to be great potential in this field.

Deep-sea metallic mineral deposits in the Kermadec volcanic arc are attracting research into how they are formed and how they influence the surrounding undersea biodiversity. Mineral-rich fluids coming out of seafloor hot springs contact cold sea water and precipitate out high-grade ore deposits containing gold, copper, lead, zinc, iron, manganese and other metals. In one sense, these are renewable resources because they are constantly being formed. Discovering these deposits is one matter; mining them in an economic and environmentally-appropriate way is another. Extraction of these resources, if any, can be viewed only as a long-term prospect.   

Geothermal energy is experiencing a renaissance in New Zealand. This renewable source of energy could contribute to 20% of New Zealand’s electricity needs after the next decade. Current research led by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences and the University of Auckland is tipped to enable cheaper geothermal energy, and identify new systems in the Central North Island for development.

Ironsands offshore of New Zealand from Auckland south to Whanganui, and off the South Island’s West Coast could hold some billions of tonnes of titanomagnetite resource. Titanium and vanadium are the main by-products. Many issues are to be worked through for the resource to be commercialised, including export marketing, managing the environmental effects of sea-floor mining, and refining the mining technology.    

Low-temperature geothermal energy can be used for space heating, hot pools, heat pumps in the home, heating greenhouses and aquaculture. The heat may be sourced from hot spring systems, disused petroleum wells, heated waters in flooded underground coal and mineral mines, heat in underground aquifers, and heat in rocks. Research in this field in New Zealand is led by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences.

Methane hydrates (fire ice) are a crystalline form of methane trapped in water, occurring in deep-water continental shelf sediments in many parts of the world, including New Zealand. This resource may furnish a future source of natural gas. Much more work lies ahead in determining economically-viable deposits, and technologies for safe extraction. The comparative advantage for New Zealand is that methane hydrates are found in shallower waters than elsewhere in the world. The resource could be worth between $5 trillion and $20 trillion.

Rare earth elements (REEs) have made the news with China holding 90-97% of world supply and considering export restrictions. The 17 metals have diverse hi-tech uses: large magnets, e.g. for wind turbines (neodymium, praseodymium, dysprosium), batteries, e.g. for hybrid cars (various RREs), high-performance ceramics (yttrium), phosphors in TVs and energy-efficient lamps (europium, terbium). In NZ, REEs have been found at several sites in the South Island, but no one is rushing to mine them as yet.

Underground coal gasification (UCG) is a way of accessing energy from coal deposits that lie too deep underground to be mined or are otherwise uneconomic. The chemical process is not new; Sir William Siemens came up with the idea in 1868. Air, oxygen or steam is injected at high temperatures, to burn the coal underground. Separate wells are drilled to capture the resulting “coal gas” which is a mixture of hydrogen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulphide, and methane and other volatile hydrocarbons. When combined with CCS, this offers a low-emissions route to generating electricity from coal.