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Download AudioAnother company has applied to mine the seabed off Taranaki – but a prominent environmentalist believes it won’t happen.
Australian company Trans Tasman Resources has spent years trying to secure consents to mine off the coast south of Ōpunake.
Now its former chief financial officer, Andrew Stewart, has applied under the name of Ngarara Exploration for a prospecting permit for vanadium, which is being touted as a safer alternate for lithium in batteries,
Tuhi-Ao Bailey says it appears there is a split within Trans Tasman – which could undermine the bid.
“We use ngarara for someone who’s been a little tutu and annoying everyone. I don’t know who is putting money into these companies but it’s just going down the hole, like even if they do get a fast track approval these companies are going to fight each other in the courts and that will cost millions so I’m hoping this will never happen and it will just go on with court battles and the lawyers will get their food paid for,” she says.
Ms Bailey says the miners will have to fight not only iwi and environmentalists but commercial and recreational fishers, offshore wind farms, oil and gas and local communities.
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