In Watchdog 149 (December 2018) my article "The Destruction Of Foulden Maar: Another Mining Disaster" applied the recent Ministerial Directives to the Overseas Investment Office (OIO), to assess transnational mining company Plaman Resources'(1) application to purchase 400ha of sensitive land near Middlemarch, Central Otago.

Needless to say, the company's plans to massively expand a historical diatomite quarry and destroy an internationally unique geological site, while risking carnage on the roads with a transport plan that defies logic, and dividing the local community by threatening some livelihoods and even some homes, do not, in my humble opinion, pass muster.

The OIO said, back in August 2018, that the decision was imminent. A Plaman Resources document(2) confirmed this, adding they expected property purchases to be completed before Christmas 2018. There have been a number of submissions made to the OIO objecting to Plaman's proposal, and at the time of writing, the Office has NOT granted them permission to purchase the surrounding 400ha award-winning merino stud farm.

Pro-Mining Lobby Group

However, Plaman's NZ General Manager, Craig Pilcher from Timaru, is not sitting around waiting for a decision. On 28 May, 2019, he will be giving a half hour address at the Minerals Forum 2019 conference in Dunedin, to talk up Plaman's plans for mining 33 million tonnes of diatomite from Foulden Maar. The conference will be opened by Dunedin's Mayor, Dave Cull. Government Ministers, Dr Megan Woods and Shane Jones, as well as local business people, will be in attendance.

This is not the nebulous community consultation Plaman has been promising the people of Strath-Taieri since May 2018. It's a strategic move to woo attending politicians and the business community within a forum, that at $850 for a single day pass, is essentially a pro-mining lobby group. It is clear that any decision from the OIO remains on the table to be bargained and negotiated over.

In the meantime, Plaman Global, having received copies from the OIO of all submissions, has been cleaning up its act and amending its Website. It continues to claim Foulden Maar diatomite will be dried and pelletised into a unique stock feed called Black Pearl(3). But press releases reporting the now disputed "off the charts" results from efficacy tests on chickens, pigs and turkeys (which also contravened NZ's Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines legislation) have all been removed from the Plaman Website. A new page called Industry has been added, containing generic charts and percentage figures predicting a growing worldwide demand for stock feed(4).

No attempt has been made to address the very real questions raised over the validity of Plaman's Black Pearl as a stock feed, or the real dollar value of this low quality diatomite which Plaman has inflated against all evidence. The question remains - is it an elaborate ploy to disguise the real end use of Foulden Maar diatomite as an additive to fertiliser (as first announced in 2015), for South-East Asian palm plantations? (see my article in Watchdog149, cited above).

When, in 2014, Plaman Resources purchased the liquidated assets of the former owners for $5.4m, it acquired only 42ha of the 172ha volcanic maar that it ultimately wants to open cast mine. It is currently saddled with resource management consents which limit both its activity and the scale of the mine. Plaman needs to change this and has not been sitting idle awaiting for the OIO decision.

Company Spin Doctors Hard At Work

Craig Pilcher has spent the last year behind the scenes, wooing locals with promises of jobs and boom times. Under Plaman ownership, the Foulden Maar mine had sat idle for over four years, but on 28 May, 2018, the Otago Daily Times front page announced "Potential To Create 100 Jobs", reporting a multi-million dollar project to restart the mine. Craig Pilcher was quoted as being unable to comment on the proposal, "... as negotiations are still under way on several fronts".

However, the article by ODT business writer Simon Hartley, provides tantalising details of massive output involving fleets of trucks and drivers, while exaggerating the value of the low quality diatomite and peppering the article with buzzwords such as "globally rare", "natural" and "organic", and hinting at a possible deal with investment bank Goldman Sachs(5). Despite Mr. Pilcher's supposed inability to comment, most of this information was not on the Plaman Website, so he was evidently keen to feed sufficient information to create hype and a media splash.

Another hurdle Plaman faces is growing international recognition of Foulden Maar as an important paleontological site that contains a unique and important record of climate change. The Geoscience Society of New Zealand Geopreservation Index Rating of Foulden Maar is being upgraded to A = international importance(6).

Previous owners of the small scale mine had allowed Otago University geologists and geology students regular access for research. The next front page ODT article exactly one week later on 2 June, 2018, lauds this. Once again written by Simon Hartley, the headline reads "Miners, Scientists Unlikely Allies"(7). It featured a large photograph of University of Otago Geology Associate Professor Daphne Lee holding two fossils. Craig Pilcher is quoted as saying, "...he was pleased Prof Lee was supportive of the mining project and said Plaman would be 'very supportive' of the University".

At the time of the writing of the article, Professor Lee had never met Craig Pilcher, but had been asked by the media team of the University, to be interviewed and photographed for the article. The headline is both misleading and deceptive. Professor Lee actually made a plea that at least part of the overall diatomite deposit be preserved in perpetuity, and Craig Pilcher's "support" for the University work was tempered by the comment "...so long as health and safety and continued mine operations considerations were met". In reality, it is highly unlikely that scientists, let alone students, will have any meaningful access, given the stringency of new health and safety laws and the mine's 24/7 operation.

On June 18, 2018, the spin doctors were at it again with the third ODT front page article in as many weeks by Simon Hartley. "Funding Secured By Diatomite Mine Firm" announces success in receiving $28.5m seed funding from Goldman Sachs and moots possible future investments of "several hundred million".

The recently appointed President of Plaman Animal Nutrition & Health, US-based Rob Aukerman, reiterated the "clean food" claim adding "there was not a complicated regulatory pathway ahead for diatomite as a supplement"(8), which for New Zealand is patently incorrect. Goldman Sachs' involvement is due to Plaman's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Australian Geordie Manolas, having worked for it immediately prior to founding Plaman.

The articles collectively create the impression of a moving juggernaut too big to fail. But Simon M Shane, Adjunct Professor of Poultry Science at the College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, who disputes the validity of Plaman's stock feed claims (trademarked as Black Pearl), had this to say about the Goldman Sachs investment. "Investment should have been based on rigorous data, using appropriate experimental procedures, with controls and statistical analysis of results. If the enterprise is based on assumptions, extrapolations and spreadsheets, Goldman may not see a return on their investment"(9).

Getting Public To Pay For Bridge To Benefit Mine

Another hurdle for Plaman is transport logistics and the ODT articles were timed to coincide with a crucial infrastructure decision by the Dunedin City Council. The Taieri River separates the mine from State Highway 87. To gain access to the highway from the mine, trucks must use the modern two-lane bridge just north of Middlemarch. There had been, until 2017, an alternative southern route to the highway bypassing Middlemarch township via the much loved 130-year old, Mt. Ross-Sutton suspension bridge.

Restoration and strengthening were underway, but it was always going to be too lightweight for mining trucks. Plaman was left with the uncomfortable task of having to persuade the people of Middlemarch, that 216 trucks passing though the township 24/7 was a good thing. But just prior to completion of the bridge renovation, the river flooded and the bridge, with scaffolding still attached below, collapsed.

At the same time that Plaman was repeatedly making the front page of the ODT with uncritical and superficial pro-mining articles, two farmers - whose properties span both sides of the Taieri River - presented at the open public forum to the Dunedin City Council Infrastructure Services and Networks Committee. They requested that the new bridge have an increased weight limit to enable trucks with stock and farm machinery to cross(10).

There followed a lengthy discussion. Much of it centred around the importance of the new bridge to serve the needs of the local community - that is, farmers, residents living in the immediate proximity, the heritage tours, cycling trail, school bus, rural post and access for emergency services. A motion proposed by Councillor Benson-Pope, after a heated debate on how to incorporate the heritage legacy in the rebuild, was left deliberately unspecific (simply that it is to be "a new bridge construction").

Council officials were given carte blanche to come up with some designs to be presented to the Strath-Taieri/Middlemarch community for feedback. The motion passed 11 to 1. At no time, was the diatomite mine at Foulden Maar or the volume of truck movements discussed(11). The main two-lane bridge, ten km north of the collapsed bridge, is closer both to the mine site and State Highway 87.

It was built to take heavy trucks, and the road leading from the mine to this bridge was sealed by the Dunedin City Council (DCC) in 2000, when the non-notified mining consent was first granted to former (now liquidated) owners(12). A completely new bridge at Sutton now created an opportunity for Plaman trucks to bypass the township.

On 5 July 2018, mine manager Craig Pilcher presented a document titled "Plaman Project Overview - Summary Black Diatomaceous Earth Project, June 2018" to the Strath-Taieri Community Board, including Dunedin City Councillor Mike Lord, also Chair of the DCC Finance Committee. Because of an absence, Councillor Lord took the minutes.

They discussed the necessity of ensuring "... that the replacement bridge at Sutton was built to a level where it could fully support fully laden mining trucks which would enable the trucks to bypass the (Middlemarch) township"(13). Pilcher also verbally stated that Plaman Resources was prepared to financially contribute to the rebuilding of the Mt Ross-Sutton Bridge. This was not minuted.

On July 17, the local community was asked by Council officials for "thoughts" about bridge design. However, the community (and it would seem, the majority of the DCC councillors) was still not informed of the mine's interests in the bridge, nor of the volume of heavy truck traffic. An e-mail was sent on August 9 to the Strath-Taieri Community Board by DCC Group Transport Manager Richard Saunders.

It stated that the bridge "... will be a concrete and steel structure which meets the needs of users and provides for the large vehicles that want to use this route.... It will also provide an alternative route for the proposed diatomite mine should that proceed"(14). This was the first written acknowledgement I could find, indicating that the DCC intended to design the new bridge beyond specs required by local farmers in order to meet the needs of the mine.

On August 10, three bridge designs were released to the wider Dunedin community for feedback. The load bearing capacity had been increased to maximum bridge specs of 65 tonnes(15). Strath-Taieri locals were invited to attend a two-hour drop-in display on 20 August to comment informally on the new bridge designs. Council staff would be in attendance. However, the DCC on-line Information Sheet which accompanied these designs had yet to make any mention of the mine or the expected level of truck movements.

On the evening of 20 August, 60 - 70 people attended the drop-in in Middlemarch to pick a favourite of three designs. By this time, information from the Plaman document regarding the level of trucking movements had been hand-delivered by a concerned local to most residents of Middlemarch and Sutton. At the gathering, another long-time resident spoke, addressing this issue despite an attempt by the Strath-Taieri Community Board chair to shut the speaker down. Mine manager Craig Pilcher was in attendance, but did not identify himself or respond to the concerns raised.

The new bridge at Sutton began construction in January 2019. The final design is four metres higher and 20 metres longer than those presented to the community. DCC staff told Councillors this was due to new flood modelling projections, while construction workers have told locals the bridge is to service the mine. Heritage New Zealand believed it was being consulted on the rebuild or replacement of a historically appropriate bridge, but, like the people of Strath-Taieri, was also duped.

The cost of the bridge has doubled to $4.5 million(16), the bill being picked up by the DCC and NZ Transport Authority. Ironically, building a "new heritage bridge"(17) would have been significantly cheaper, but this was moved off the DCC agenda very quickly on the premise that, at $2 million, it would cost a lot more than a conventional modern bridge.

Full Speed Ahead

Despite not having approval from the OIO, or even knowing whether the owners of the land Plaman wants to purchase are willing to sell, despite not having resource consent as yet, local Otago and Southland companies have been approached to provide free quotes for undertakings such as the design and construction of the processing plant in Awarua. All this is in preparation for Pilcher's presentation at the Minerals Forum in Dunedin in May.

And it may well be that, given public reaction to Plaman's outlandish plan to have 216 truck movements 24/7 travelling 264km each way, Pilcher will present a more rational and workable transport proposal. But for all this, it still remains a smoke screen, diverting attention away from Foulden Maar's incalculable value as a scientific site which could well help humanity understand and counter the effects of climate change.

to be continued....

Endnotes

1. Trading as Plaman Global
2. Plaman Project Overview - Summary Black Diatomaceous Earth Project, June 2018
3. https://www.plamanglobal.com/product/
4. https://www.plamanglobal.com/industry/
5. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/potential-create-100-jobs
6. Foulden Maar Geopreservation Status, 27/2/18
7. https://www.odt.co.nz/business/miners-scientists-unlikely-allies
8. https://www.odt.co.nz/business/funding-secured-diatomite-mine-firm
9. http://www.chick-news.com/View_Single_Post.aspx?Site_Copy_ID=73941
10. https://youtu.be/ZVZEpYuy5eY?t=19
11. https://youtu.be/uppBqDridOc?t=5853
12. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/opponent-claims-mine-project-changed
13. Strath-Taieri Community Board Minutes, 5/7/18 pg.2
14. E-mail from Richard Saunders to Strath-Taieri Community Board, 9/8/18
15. Dunedin City Council Information Sheet, released 9 August to Strath-Taieri Community Board and 10 August to the public.
16. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/dcc/work-begin-new-sutton-mt-ross-rd-bridge
17. https://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/bridge-decision-due-no-blame-laid-collapse