74% of NZers want to know mineral wealth

Poll shows 74% of New Zealanders want to know more about their mineral wealth

Results from a recent omnibus survey commissioned by Wellington sharebroking and investment banking firm McDouall Stuart show that most New Zealanders want to understand more about New Zealand’s mineral wealth, including mineral wealth that may lie on or under conservation land.

Conducted by UMR Research during the week that public submissions closed on the government’s proposal to release some land from Schedule 4 protection under the Crown Minerals Act, the poll showed that 74% of those surveyed think that we need to know how much mineral wealth we have in New Zealand.

Furthermore, 60% of those surveyed people said that we need to know if New Zealand has mineral wealth even if that wealth lies on or under conservation land.

The Crown Minerals Act gives legal title of all oil, gas and gold and most of other types of mineral to the people of New Zealand. The government administers the mineral estate on behalf of New Zealanders and receives royalties from those that extract minerals from the estate.

Andrew McDouall, Managing Director of McDouall Stuart says “what this poll shows is that most New Zealanders want to understand more about what is theirs and how much it might be worth”.

“Our mineral endowment is undoubtedly New Zealand’s single largest national asset – far more valuable than the NZ Super Fund or of SOEs,” says Mr McDouall. “The problem is that exploration needs to be done to understand just how big that asset might be. That work hasn’t been done, and it desperately needs to be.”

Mr McDouall believes that many of the most vocal opponents of the government’s proposal are missing the point. “In my view, the debate should be about exploration, not mining. The reality is that in most of the land areas proposed by government for Schedule 4 release, there is little or no specific knowledge about what, if any, mineral wealth might actually lie on or under that land. Even if commercial deposits are discovered, decisions around whether or not to mine are years, if not decades away.”

“As is usual with such politically charged issues, the quality of public debate has been weighed down by a vocal minority determined to impress imagery of doom, disaster and destruction. New Zealanders are smarter than that and will make up their own minds based on the facts” says Mr McDouall.

“As a nation, we face a simple choice: keep our heads in the sand and pretend as though there’s nothing but dirt beneath our feet, or make the effort to at least understand what might be there. Only once we have done the exploration needed and there is an understanding of what minerals may or may not be present can informed decisions be made about whether or not to develop a particular resource. If, and when that happens, the approval and consent processes already in place will ensure that the interests of New Zealanders are protected.”

Our mineral wealth is one of the very few game-changing levers that New Zealand has available to it to close the income gap between us and our trading partners. This poll shows that a majority of New Zealanders understand this opportunity and want to know more.”

About the UMR Survey
UMR conducted a telephone omnibus survey of a nationally representative sample of 750 New Zealanders aged 18 years or over. The survey asked respondents two questions:

1. Do you think we need to know how much mineral wealth we have in New Zealand?
2. Do you think we need to know if we have mineral wealth lying on or under our conservation land?

The survey was conducted from 20th to 26th May 2010 from UMR Research’s national interview facility in Auckland. The margin of error for a sample size of 750 for a 50% figure at the 95% confidence level is ± 3.6%. For further detail and analysis of the survey results, refer to the UMR report that accompanies this release.

About McDouall Stuart
McDouall Stuart is an independent, New Zealand owned investment banking and sharebroking group. Firmly established as market leader in the New Zealand resources sector, McDouall Stuart has been Lead Manager of every public capital raising in the New Zealand oil, gas and minerals sector for the past seven years. Since its establishment in 2002, McDouall Stuart has raised in excess of $350 million on the equity capital markets on behalf of clients in the oil, gas and minerals sector.

Specific mandates have included as Lead Manager for the June 2007 initial public offering of Pike River Coal Ltd, Lead Manager of rights issues for Pike River Coal Ltd in 2008 and 2009, Joint Lead Manager for Pike River Coal Ltd’s recent (May 2010) rights issue, a rights issue (2007) and institutional placement (2006) for New Zealand Oil and Gas Ltd, Lead Manager for the 2006 initial public offering of L&M Petroleum Ltd and Lead Manager of the 2006 initial public offering of Glass Earth Gold Ltd. McDouall Stuart has led institutional share placements for a number of other local and international resource companies.

McDouall Stuart has published a number of comprehensive reports on the oil, gas and minerals sector, including “Stepping Up: Options for Developing the Potential of New Zealand’s Oil, Gas and Minerals Sector”, which was commissioned last year by the Ministry of Economic Development. The full Stepping Up report can be accessed through:
http://www.med.govt.nz/templates/Page____42249.aspx

ENDS

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