Well, I cannot say it has been a fun year, but it has certainly been busy.
2025 started as it meant to go on – with Shane Jones talking smack about mining and minerals. He came to Waihi to announce the so-called critical minerals list, and his big announcement was that they had decided to include gold and coal, despite no one (other than the miners) saying they should. We knew he was coming, so had to rally! We were joined by more than 100 people on the last day of Jan, a super hot day, as he welcomed a range of invited guests – local iwi, local govt leaders, and media to make the announcement… and we sent a clear, strong but nevertheless peaceful message – we don’t want more mines here.
Other than that, January was the summer of submissions, starting with the scoping for the Regulatory Standards Bill and moving into the Treaty Principles Bill and on and on… the highlight of the month was Watchdog being chosen by the Kuaotunu annual ‘10 Artists’ exhibition to be the beneficiary of the exhibition. This support from our community – and the opportunity to make some information available on the issues was a welcome ray of sunshine!
February saw Rua Gold very active in the Wentworth/Wires area and we supported local groups to monitor, to inform and to understand what was happening – and unfortunately still is. February’s positive was the announcement of Mineralogy that they were pulling out of 16 or 17 permits, including at Whenuakite; then we learned that unfortunately the one permit they have kept in Aotearoa is all the way from Hikuai to Whangamata. Also in February we celebrated the announcement from DOC that the numbers of Archeys had increased, although even this awesome news was somewhat tempered by their use of Oceana Golds data to inform them (discovered via OIA)… we never trust the miners!
Feb also saw more action, this time at Te Rerenga as Oceana applied to, and began drilling. A hearty crowd of over 100 rallied when KAMAG put the call out, sending a clear message. Within days the rig was on the move and Whanurakite/Coroglen crews were ready and waiting at the gates – but the miners ere done and went away. Later we found a press release where they had accused our people of endangering them, a sad narrative that the company has been trying to establish, despite our long and established history of NVDA. Pathetic really.
In March, Oceana’s application to the Fasttrack went in, expected, but sad and daunting all the same. It was returned later as incomplete, but we knew they would be back… With all the talk of the Fast-track – and the talking up of how easy it was to mine here now, by the end of March there were several new companies actively targeting the Hauraki – so we launched a letter writing campaign to help the companies understand that there was no point – cause they aren’t welcome. And we expanded the Lock the Gate Campaign (www.lockthegatenz.org) helping community protect privately owned land by understanding their rights as landowners/occupiers, knowing what might be coming – and of course, encouraging them to lock their gates to the miners!
And then, Oceana’s application was accepted, and the waiting began – as did the theorising on if we would be asked to comment as we had written semi-regularly to the EPA, then to the Panel Convenor to ask to be heard. Over this period we also had the Regulatory Standards submission, which was as depressing as Shane Jones and his smack talk! We gave a presentation to the Conservation Boards about our concerns re Wharekirauponga, and the Fast-track – and all the other companies coming in!
In July they finally appointed a Panel to consider Oceana’s application, which started the Fast-track clock. The Panel was 5 people, chaired by a retired supreme court judge (Sir William Young). Then, on July 28 the Panel issued a minute saying that Watchdog was “Other persons the panel considers appropriate” and was being given the opportunity to comment on the OGLNZ application. Within 20 working days. So we had until 25 August to gather all the experts, all the evidence, all the everything we had to stop this thing!
Whew. And so we did. August was all about meetings and writing and reading and …. It was full on! We had to be across the application, to understand how to navigate it, what parts to direct our various experts to (it seemed deliberately complex, no hyperlinks, everything spread everywhere – and with only 20 days it was hard work to decipher, and also then to understand that actually, the heavy metals are discussed in several chapters, not just one, so that person needed to look at xxx and also at yyy etc etc). And as this being a brand new process, there was no one really to turn to for guidance! But… we did it.
We held meetings with our committee, with the wider Watchdog support group, with experts we have been working with overseas in preparation – with strangers who were suggested by others – whoever we could think of to ask for help, we did! Whoever wanted to help us evaluate the application, to understand and be ready to comment. We contacted the lawyer we’ve worked with on other mining related stuff – he was prepared to work with us. Another group we’d been working with suggested an economist, we contacted him, we reached out to another 3 economists, all with slightly different areas of expertise. We talked with a frog expert in the US (his background had been 20 years in Aotearoa, working with Archey’s).We were covered social issues, arranging for Earthwatch crew to put in statements as part of that. We had excellent people agree to comment on the water issues, the wider ecological issues and one of our international contacts who is an incredible expert in heavy metals, tailings etc. It was a mighty mighty effort.
And one that Watchdog can, and should, be very proud of.
While all this was going on, Shane Jones was out at the International Minerals conferences, selling Aotearoa to the World – and new companies were responding. The Zealandia application was approved over farmland at Puriri, and another player entered the game, called Uvre. The updates had to keep going out!
Then, we submitted our comment and evidence. Then waiting. The thing with the fasttrack, is that it is wait, wait, wait… then GO GO GO, then wait wait GOGOGO!!!
So, September was the next round of waiting; While we did, we saw Talisman go to their shareholders for yet more money, RuaGold initiate meetings with TCDC to consent their drilling, in the Wentworth area. Sadly a commercial miner has also bought in to the old ‘hobby’ mine at Puketui, but at the moment that’s still a watch and wait. Talisman declared they were mining – actively mining inside Mt Karangahake and taking the ore to Huntly to process! Shocking. And most recently they say they are selling their tailings to an Australian based company for further processing!
Then we were invited to comment on the conditions on the Oceana application that were released with the Draft decision on 25 Nov – to grant the application, with the following conditions etc etc… reading through this was horrible. The decision, the justification – the almost complete disregard for our evidence. We had 9 days to get our comments together – most of our experts came back with’ they don’t appear to have taken on board any of what I said before, so there’s nothing really to build on. Not much point.”Nevertheless, comment we did – might as well get all the reckons on record now, right?!
So, on Dec 5 our comment was submitted. We questioned why the Panel elected to consider a new mine in conservation land as part of the expansion application when, as in our original submission they were two distinct proposals, we questioned the use of the mitigation hierarchy – or apparent lack of it; we drew their attention to how the conditions breached te Tiriti, why it wasn’t appropriate for the company to monitor themselves, why the water stuff, in all its uncertainty should still have bottom lines, not movable goalposts, why they only thought about the frogs at ground level, but there was no consideration for above or below their habitat – and basically just said that they couldn’t condition their way out of a bad decision!
Throughout all of this have been the newsletters, the updates, monitoring new permits, monitoring the news, the announcements and what this Govt are up to. The endless social media and the need to keep up with that – as platforms like X/twitter have been increasingly problematic politically, we have had to look for alternatives without losing all of our reach – hello Blsky and Linked In – both v slow to grow, and most recently Tik Tok – a much more active platform – find us on any of the above either @corowatchdog or @coromandelwatchdog !
Going into the new year we continue to be part of the nationwide Stop the Fasttrack group, and working with our international allies like Yes to Life, No to Mining (and connecting other local groups in to these networks). As the Fast-track has gained momentum we have increasingly been called on to support other groups facing other fast track mines, like on Otago, like at Sams Creek, as well as having enquiries from communities affected by quarrying.
To close out this year, we now had the final decision of the Panel on the Fast-track application on Dec 18, and held an Rally of Resistance on the 20th at Parakiwai, Whangamatā, a time for supporters to come together with that community in solidarity… bad decisions come and go, but community doesn’t. The fight will continue….
So, bring on 2026, right? And hopefully a change in direction!