<<Previous Index Next>>
3 Significant Resource Management Issues, Objectives, Policies and Methods
3.14 Minerals
3.14.1 Overview
The Waikato is the most important minerals producing region in New Zealand. Within the Region there are important mineral exploration and development operations including coal, aggregates, gold, sand and limestone. The extent of the mineral resources in the Region is indicated on Map 6.
Coal is a significant resource in the Waikato Region (see Map 6). The Region has the most extensive sub-bituminous coal resources in New Zealand. Over 1.5 million tonnes of coal is produced each year from coal fields at Huntly, Rotowaro, Benneydale and other smaller mines.
Economic aggregate and industrial mineral resources (including limestone, sands and gravels) can be found throughout the Region (see Map 6). These resources include volcanic rocks such as basalt or andesite, greywacke, limestone and sands and gravels. The aggregate resources are put to a wide variety of uses but by far the most significant use is as roading material. In 1993 the Waikato Region produced 4.2 million tonnes of aggregate and industrial minerals. Over 1.8 million tonnes was “exported”, mainly to the Auckland and Bay of Plenty Regions. Demand for Waikato aggregates is expected to increase significantly in the coming years as Auckland’s available aggregate supply decreases or is made more difficult to exploit due to competition from other land uses.
This aggregate material is necessary for the maintenance of the Region’s infrastructure. Some activities associated with the extraction of aggregate such as quarrying can, by their nature, conflict with other neighbouring land use activities such as rural residential land uses.
Precious metals such as gold or silver are found in the Hauraki epithermal zone which has the only producing epithermal goldfield in New Zealand. In 1993, 5.6 tonnes of gold and 25.8 tonnes of silver were produced from this field.
The exploitation of these mineral resources gives rise to two major resource management issues:
- access to readily identifiable mineral resource of regional significance (being the ability to extract such resources rather than any access rights to them under the Crown Minerals Act 1991)
- potential adverse environmental effects associated with the exploration and development of mineral resources.
Access to mineral resources is governed by factors such as topography, competing values of overlying and neighbouring land uses, climate and the difficulty of extracting the resource. In Auckland, access to significant aggregate supplies has been severely restricted by urban and rural residential development. The ability to extract the Waikato’s mineral resources may be affected in the future by other activities in the vicinity which are sensitive to the effects of mineral extraction and which would lead to restraints on the extraction of mineral resources. Conversely, other land uses may be sensitive to the effects of mineral extraction activities.
All mineral exploration and development activities will have some adverse environmental effects. Land uses, developments or the environment in close proximity to mineral resources may be sensitive to the effects of mineral extraction and may be incompatible with such activities. As a consequence, conflicts between land uses may arise.
The effects of mining are not dissimilar to a number of other industrial activities. Discharges from mine sites and processing plants can adversely affect water quality, dust and noise nuisances are a common complaint, as is the visual impact of open pit mines. Where precious minerals are being mined, large volumes of potentially hazardous tailings which must be contained in specially engineered landfills can be created.
The management of each adverse effect on specific natural and physical resources is addressed in the resource specific sections of this RPS (e.g. sections 3.3 Land and Soils, 3.4 Water, 3.5 Coast, 3.6 Air).
Summary of Significant Resource Management Issues |
The following is a summary of significant resource management issues that have been identified from the overview section on minerals:
- The ability to extract mineral resources can be compromised through land uses or developments above or in close proximity to mineral deposits.
- Mineral exploration and development has the potential to produce adverse environmental effects.
|
Map 6: Indicative Map of Mineral Deposits in the Waikato Region
<<Previous Index Next>>