Trans-Tasman Resources still mulling possible appeal

Trans-Tasman Resources still mulling possible appeal, no decision yet

By Rebecca Howard

Sept. 13 (BusinessDesk) - Trans-Tasman Resources has not yet decided to appeal a High Court ruling that quashed its marine consent for an offshore iron sands project, executive chair Alan Eggers told BusinessDesk.

"TTR, the company, is still discussing the appeal decision with the legal advisors. We are getting information from lawyers... There are certain time frames and we are aware of those but we have not, the company has not, made a decision to appeal the High Court decision," he said.

The company has until Sept. 25 to make a decision.

The 35-year consent for the project to extract 50 million tonnes of seabed material a year was granted in August 2017 on the casting vote of the chair of a decision-making committee appointed by the Environmental Protection Authority and included a series of conditions.

However, conservation, fishing and iwi groups sought to stop the project. Last month the High Court ruled the committee had been wrong to take an adaptive management approach when granting the discharge consents for the project in the Exclusive Economic Zone Act. It sent the issue back to the DMC for reconsideration.

TTR has faced a number of obstacles in its bid to begin mining. Its initial consent bid for the project was turned down in 2014 - largely due to a lack of baseline information on the expected impacts of its proposal.

(BusinessDesk)

© Scoop Media