Santana Minerals’ Bendigo-Ophir gold mine is one of the 149 projects selected for the government’s one-stop-shop Fast Track Approvals Bill.

However, not everyone is happy with Sunday’s (October 6) announcement, with one Tarras community group vocal in their opposition.

The Bendigo-Ophir project is an open pit and underground mine on Central’s Bendigo and Ardgour Stations, with completion and remediation expected in 2065.

Regional development minister Shane Jones said the 11 mining projects on the list would make a major contribution to the government’s resource objective of doubling the value of mineral exports to $2billion by 2035, extracting coal, gold, iron sands and mineral sands. 

“They will deliver measurable benefits to regional and national [gross domestic product] highly-skilled and highly-paid jobs in the regions, and other associated benefits like the retention of regional infrastructure,” he said. 

Sustainable Tarras, a small advocacy group of people from Tarras and across New Zealand, has been outspoken in opposition to the project.

Spokeswoman Suze Keith said the group was dismayed but not surprised the project was included in the list.

“This is a development with a lifespan of 150 years and a perpetual liability in a toxic tailings dam. As a community we have many questions about the mine that we fear will be left unanswered and that the local community will be excluded from any decision-making, despite being those most impacted.”

Suze said information presented to date had a long way to go before the local community could be confident the benefits outweighed the mine’s environmental, social and reputational impacts and long-term risks.

She said concerns were impacts on the local aquifer system, the tailings dam facility which likely contained significant levels of arsenic, and electricity and diesel use that would generate emissions. 

Time pressure to meet the fast track approval submission timeline was another factor Sustainable Tarras said “hugely exacerbates potential long term risks”.

“This is in a place which New Zealanders prize for its natural beauty, its dark skies and tranquillity.

“In return it’s promising a little over $1 per person each year in return in royalties and a toxic tailings dam which will loom over the Tarras Primary School and village for the next 100 years.

“No one is marching in the streets demanding a gold mine – how about fast tracking the Dunedin Hospital? Or the remediations needed to protect South Dunedin from the next massive downpour?”

The inclusion of mining projects was applauded by industry pundits with mineral and mining industry association Straterra saying mining did belong on the fast track list.

Straterra chief executive Josie Vidal said when manufacturing and processing plants were closing in the regions, mining brought much needed jobs and money into regional communities, and exports to boost trade deficit.

"We urge people with any concerns about mining or the fast-track bill to do their research, talk to experts, and think about life without mining those minerals in New Zealand. We don’t have an economy to sustain importing everything.”

The Fast-track Approvals Bill is currently before the Environment Select Committee which will report back to Parliament by October 18; it is expected to go before Parliament for its second reading in November, and be passed into law before the end of the year.

Once the Bill is passed the fast track projects can apply to the Environmental Protection Authority to have an expert panel assess them and apply conditions.

The government is recommending to the Environment Select Committee that expert panels (including members with technical expertise relevant to a project) have the ability to decline approval for projects.

Santana Minerals is holding community drop in sessions in Tarras and Cromwell during the next few weeks. Find dates and times here.