Trans-Tasman Resources marine consent rejected

Trans-Tasman Resources marine consent rejected

Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) announced today they are extremely disappointed with the decision of the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) Decision-making Committee (DMC) to decline their application for a marine consent for mining iron sands in the South Taranaki Bight.

The company successfully applied for a mining consent earlier this year.

“We have put a significant amount of time and effort into developing this project including consulting with iwi and local communities and undertaking detailed scientific research to assess environmental impacts of the project,” said TTR’s Chief Executive, Tim Crossley.

“Our objective has been to develop an iron sands extraction project which achieves substantial economic development while protecting the environment.

“We will be carefully analysing the decision over the next few days and will take our time to consider what this means for the South Taranaki Bight project and for the company.

“The bottom line is our New Zealand staff and consultants now have a very uncertain future and the local community will not benefit from hundreds of new jobs and an estimated $240 million dollars increase in GDP, annually.

“Since inception TTR has spent more than $60 million, most of this in New Zealand, to deliver a sustainable mining operation with significant economic benefits for New Zealand,” said Mr Crossley.

Further information on TTR’s project can be found in a Q&A and a summary information sheet.

TTR is a New Zealand company, established in 2007 to explore and develop the North Island’s offshore iron sand deposits. TTR is headquartered in Wellington and is funded by New Zealand and international investment. Since inception TTR has spent more than $50 million to investigate the resource, and on engineering, marketing, studying the existing physical and ecological environment and identifying potential impacts. TTR’s objective is to develop an iron sands extraction project which achieves substantial economic development while protecting the environment.

TTR’s marine consent was for a project area of 65.76 km2 in the exclusive economic zone approximately 22.4 to 36 kilometres off the coast of Patea, in water depths of 20-45 metres. TTR proposes to extract up to 50 million tonnes of iron rich sediment per year and process the sediment aboard an integrated mining vessel. From that, around 5 million tonnes of iron ore concentrate will be exported per year. The remaining sediment will be re-deposited on the seafloor in a controlled manner, usually backfilling previous mined areas.

ENDS

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