Catherine Delahunty is a founding member of Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki, a community organisation that has been working to protect the area from the toxic hardrock mining industry for over 35 years. You can find out more about their work by visiting www.watchdog.org.nz, finding them on Facebook at Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki or contacting Ruby Powell at watchdogcoordinator@gmail.com or 0221027414.

For the last 35 years some of us have been actively fighting the transnational mining industry in order to protect the Hauraki/Coromandel region. The mountain ranges of the area are of great interest to the gold mining industry, especially when the price of gold makes exploration and mining infrastructure development worth their while. Our organisation Coromandel Watchdog of Hauraki has been riding the waves of the gold price since 1980 and we have created a largely successful resistance culture which has seen many mining companies come and go (and CAFCINZ/CAFCA is proud to have worked alongside Coromandel Watchdog from the outset. Ed.).

Newmont: Transnational Corporate Recidivist

Waihi is the one part of our area which has seen modern mining dig giant holes and underground tunnels beneath homes and under the town. The mine has mainly been developed by Newmont Gold* of Colorado whose activities in many countries have created both human suffering and environmental degradation. Newmont claims that Waihi is a model gold mine but Watchdog has been in a number of hearings with disempowered and frustrated local people whose quality of life and property values have been literally undermined by the activities of this transnational. At Baxter’s Road on the outskirts of Waihi the mine has covered fertile farmland with a vast mountain of toxic waste behind an earth dam. These tailings contain heavy metals which persist for many years and we can only hope that the site is not hit by a weather bomb or an earthquake. *Newmont was a Roger Award finalist in 2012, 11, 09 and 03.

Coromandel Watchdog is not in a position to halt the damage caused by the Waihi mine expansion beneath the eastern side of the town but we have tried to support this community. In my capacity as a Green MP I have a Member’s Bill which would ban mining under people’s homes; I have drafted this because Newmont has a permit to build the Correnso mine under 1,100 homes, although their initial project just affects around 40 properties. For these trapped people the blasting, shaking and sudden noises are a daily reality to be endured. If they sell to the company they have to accept the company price and then start again in a potentially more expensive environment.

When Watchdog member Renee Annan* went to Peru in 2014 she saw the impact of Newmont’s activities on indigenous communities in the Andes where it and the Government have threatened water supplies, poisoned communities and allowed the use of the military against protestors. She met with activists supporting the one family standing between Newmont Gold and the Conga mine project and it’s with great respect that I can report that Māxima Chaupe and family are still standing there.  Newmont also has a bad reputation in Ghana, Indonesia, and USA to name just few of places where it continues to operate “business as usual” corporate mining. *Renee Annan wrote the most recent Coromandel Watchdog update to appear in (Foreign Control) Watchdog, namely “Attack On, And Undermining Of, Schedule Four Continues”, in Watchdog 132, May 2013, http://www.converge.org.nz/watchdog/32/04.html. Ed.

Oceana Gold

Newmont is now selling most of its interests in Waihi to fellow transnational Oceana Gold. Oceana is well known in Te Wai Pounamu for its large open cast gold mines at Macraes Flat and Reefton. Since the sustained fall of the gold price Oceana at Reefton has been cutting staff and the mine may be mothballed in 2016. Oceana is of particular interest to many of us because it demonstrates the dangers of free trade and investment agreements to sovereign states, let alone communities and the environment. Oceana is currently suing El Salvador to the tune of $301 million via the investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in a free trade agreement. El Salvador resisted the mining company’s desire to mine in an area where the last drinkable water source in the country would be put at risk. As a result El Salvador is on trial in a trade court for breach of the trade agreement. This far from wealthy nation is facing a powerful global corporate fleecing them for defending its citizens and the environment in a non-judicial court which gives a corporation similar status as a sovereign elected government. This may seem bizarre but ISDS is a core element of US-led trade deals and reflects the ethos that the corporation has rights on a par with the State. I have heard diplomats advancing this as natural and fair which goes to show how deeply corporatism has penetrated the instruments which allegedly exist to protect the State's interests.

So the news that Oceana is buying the mines at Waihi and believes they have “significant optionality through exploration of a highly prospective region” has been greeted with a healthy suspicion and disgust by locals. Oceana will take over the exploration permits that Newmont holds for some large blocks of land behind Whitianga, Whangamata and Kauaeranga Valley. Newmont has drilled in the remote forest between Whangamata and Waitekauri and found some rich pickings. The area is also home to the world's most endangered frog the pepeketua or Archeys frog. These ancient unique creatures are easily disturbed by changes in the environment and in northern Coromandel their habitat is theoretically protected by Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act which Watchdog was instrumental in creating to prevent large scale mining north of the Kōpū-Hikuai highway. Schedule Four of the Crown Minerals Act was created after many years of activism and protects the northern Peninsula from large scale mining on conservation lands and also protects the inner waters of the Hauraki Gulf. It doesn’t prevent exploration including the use of drilling rigs for taking samples.   

Below the Kōpū-Hikuai line is the Talisman mine project at Karangahake where the small Australian company Talisman Gold is busy seeking foreign partners for its project, reopening the Talisman Mine in the forest park. This beautiful regenerating area is heavily used by bikers,  trampers and walkers and the local community is furious that Talisman was given a consent to bulk sample from the old mine area without public notification. The Hauraki District Council failed to see the public interest in this consent having been well trained by the Newmont Gold relationship. Minimising and denying effects on communities is their norm. Protect Karangahake is a strong local group which works closely with Coromandel Watchdog and has many friends across the country that will support the campaign to stop Talisman damaging the area. Talisman and its new Chinese investors may find they have bitten off more than they can chew despite a compliant local authority and a facilitative Government.

(Drill) Bit Players

Apart from the big players the Hauraki/Coromandel is also plagued with some smaller companies which are attempting to explore and drill within the inner waters of Tikapa Moana (the Hauraki Gulf). The most active has been Sea Group Holdings whose managing director is Mr Andrew Knight known to many for his connections to the Pike River disaster. His company has carried out some sampling in the mud of Coromandel harbour where mine waste from last century, including gold and silver residues and heavy metals have settled in a layer beneath the surface. Watchdog and CLAIM, the local group, have taken direct action against the sampling activity which has been literally a dirty business. We have done our best to delay their efforts and also to point out via the media that the inner waters of the Gulf are within Schedule Four and thus mining will not be permitted. Its persistence in exploring suggests it thinks the law can be ignored or if mineable deposits are discovered, the law can be changed. Under the current Government this may be a realistic expectation on its part, which is why we are challenging its activities every step of the way.

Some mining activity is virtually at the hobby mining level in the region but we cannot ignore it. The potential of a small prospect finding gold and the selling out to the big companies is always with us. The tangata whenua at Manaia showed all of us how it’s done when a small company called Broken Arrow announced it wanted to explore in their hills. They immediately challenged the company in the media, disputed their claims that  they had consulted, and performed a resounding haka on Waitangi  Day which went viral, all of  which caused the company to back off. They now face another larger foreign company, Cornerstone Resources, in their rohe with a prospecting permit, but my money is on Manaia, not this foreign mining company.   

Compared to the gold rush of the 1980s or even 2010 the level of mining activity across the region is limited and reflects a gold price hovering around $1,200 per ounce. The price needs to be $1,400 or more to make a big new investment in mining infrastructure worthwhile. However our organisation has no illusions about the risks from this industry and we work hard to maintain a state of readiness for peaceful direct action. The local groups who work under our umbrella are strong and in many cases led by the children of the first generation of activists.

Fight Back

These young people who grew up in the thick of the first Watchdog campaigns are skilled in modern media as well as bushcraft. We are working together to strengthen local and regional planning instruments so that the values of our communities who have an alternative future from mining are embedded. This is a slow, expensive and difficult process but it is also essential. I am also in the process of drafting a Member’s Bill to extend Schedule Four protection over conservation land south of the Kōpū Hikuai line as far south as the Hauraki waka boundary at Te Aroha and across to the coast at Waihi Beach. This has a snowball’s chance in Hell of passing under the current Government but is an opportunity to assert the values of the areas which are just as important as those of the northern Hauraki.  

The current Government has a simple strategy towards gold mining, they like it! It has changed laws and stopped royalty increases and has opened up more blocks for minerals tenders all over the country. However it cannot defeat our purpose, our tradition and our organising capacity. It is also haunted by the 2010 Queen Street march against mining in Schedule Four land and the National Parks which saw at least 30,000 people take to the streets. Our long-term strategy is no secret. We will continue to challenge the miners peacefully. We will continue to expose their global practices against communities and against the environment. We will continue to assert our values and our relationships more precious than gold. We are only too aware that agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) increase the pressure on our ability to protect our home, but if Māxima Chaupe can stand up against Newmont in the fraught political environment of Peru we have no excuse for slowing down.