A Momentous Year
Posted in: Perspectives: Friday, 08 January 2010
NZ Quarrying & Mining - January 2010
A Momentous Year
Within its first year, the new natural resources association has witnessed many positive changes for the industry. By RICHARD MICHAEL, chief executive of Straterra.
The past year has been a momentous one for the quarrying and mining sectors with the new government seeing the natural resources sector as being a key plank in its economic policy going forward and keen to look at all opportunities in the sector.
This is clearly a different approach to the previous nine years but has happened against the background of an international recession that has made life difficult for everyone – and particularly difficult when it comes to attracting investment in this capital hungry sector.
The downturn has not been all bad news. It has alleviated some of the skills shortages in the sector and given companies the opportunity to take stock of their position, think carefully about the future and put measures in place to help ensure they achieve those aims.
One of more momentous changes over the past year – and one that has probably been largely unrecognised by the community – is the gazetting of our 200 mile economic zone providing New Zealand with sovereign rights over all the sea area up to 200 miles from our shores.
The result of this is that we now have the fifth largest economic zone of any country in the world, presenting significant opportunities for natural resources exploration and recovery.
However, the legislative framework around the economic zone is fragmented and out of date. This is something the Government does need to address to ensure investors and extractors can access the minerals that are available.
Statutes currently governing this zone were established before the mineral potential of this vast area was envisioned. It is critical that changes ensure that exploration and extraction is carried out in safe and environmentally sensitive ways.
The industry has continued to squarely confront issues of safety with companies continuously working to improve and upgrade practises.
The MinEx Health and Safety Council has done very good work developing New Zealand specific codes of practice for both surface and underground mining and ongoing industry support for this initiative is vital.
Another major progression has been the increased public awareness of this country’s vast array of natural resources.
The myth that we lag behind Australia has been dispelled. The public are recognising that we live in one of the most mineral-rich countries in the world with World Bank figures ranking us second only to Saudi Arabia in natural resource wealth per capita.
Environmental issues with regard to the sector have come to the fore again this year, largely as a result of the Government’s announcement of a stocktake of natural resources on DoC’s Schedule 4 land.
Inevitably, a fair amount of emotional rhetoric and scaremongering about what this might mean ensued. However, there was also much sensible comment recognising that the decision was balanced and considered and that it makes sense to know what resources our country has and where they are.
The natural resources industry does not see this as an ‘either or’ situation in terms of environmental and conservation values.
Our spectacular land and tourism industry are vital to the long term wellbeing of the country and the integrity of that will be protected. However, it may be that there is potential for mining in some areas of lower value and we should at least be aware of these.
Another welcome development has been a much improved relationship between the sector and the Department of Conservation which has taken a much more positive view of the opportunities provided by natural resources.
I am very pleased at the progress Straterra has made in the last year towards our aim of bringing together the common interests of the different parts of the natural resource sector, ensuring a unified industry voice.
We are delighted to have recently signed a memorandum of understanding with the Aggregate and Quarry Association (AQA). This will form the basis of a new direction going forward. Different parts of the sector face many similar issues and it makes sense that we all work together where we can.
The AQA has achieved significant gains around local government planning issues and positioning and planning around aggregate resources. That is also very relevant to the wider minerals industry.
Another very positive development has been the proposed changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA). The current costly and long winded process needed to be streamlined without losing the essential protection it provides to communities. The proposed changes will go a long way towards achieving that goal.
The next year looks like being very positive for the sector. There are signs the international recession is abating and that means we need to position ourselves swiftly to take advantages of opportunities that may arise.
This will require considerable policy work in a number of areas to ensure we are able to attract investors and explorers – but, if we can get this right, then our economic prospects look bright.