mining Archive

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  Schedule 4 open for drilling! - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Many of the Frogblog readers would have supported the fantastic campaign in 2010 to love and protect the Schedule 4 areas of our beautiful country from mining. You will not be impressed by the news that the Government which promised to protect Schedule 4 is now eroding the promise. You will not be impressed by [...] read more
  April 12, 2013 3:22 pm - 105 Comments
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  Denniston too precious to mine - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  I am concerned that the interim decision of the Environment Court does not rule out the mining of the Denniston Plateau. The interim decision of the Environment Court acknowledges that the Denniston Plateau has high biodiversity values which would be impacted by mining and that the situation is too close to call. However the decision [...] read more
  March 28, 2013 2:53 pm - 9 Comments
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  Japan and Gas Hydrates-Fire in Ice - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  In news out this week, it’s clear the new frontline of climate change is deep at the bottom of the ocean. read more
  March 14, 2013 4:45 pm - 76 Comments
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  Lignite coal to stay in the hole - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  I am celebrating today after the news that Solid Energy will be dropping its Lignite project in Southland. This is a win for the climate and our environment and for Southland. read more
  February 22, 2013 3:50 pm - 20 Comments
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  Solid Energy’s future is in clean energy - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  There hasn’t been a great deal of good news lately for Solid Energy. What does the future hold? read more
  February 7, 2013 12:25 pm - 163 Comments
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  Infographic – jobs in manufacturing vs mining - by frog

  
  
  
  One of these industries is shedding thousands of jobs, urging the Government to help, and being ignored. One of these industries is jobs-poor, urging the Government to back it, and being listened to. How about this instead? read more
  February 1, 2013 4:26 pm - 15 Comments
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  Remembering Waihi and Pike - by Denise Roche

  
  
  
  The Pike River report released this week showed how little progress in health and safety New Zealand has made since the days of the Waihi mine strike. My own grandfather was a miner at Waihi. He died when my mother was small and my grandmother said that working in the mine meant long hours and [...] read more
  November 12, 2012 7:19 am - 63 Comments
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  EU warns against fracking while NZ oil lobbyist has head in the clouds - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Last week three new reports commissioned by the European Union about fracking were released, which voiced strong concerns around fracking for shale gas, the unconventional gas sector and the lack of sufficient regulation in place to deal with the shale gas boom. read more
  September 12, 2012 4:48 pm - 3 Comments
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  Asset sales costing jobs not creating them - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  Solid Energy’s announcement last week of the suspension of work at the Spring Creek mine is a devastating blow to the West Coast economy and our local community. Up to 230 jobs could go (plus others in contractors and related industries), which is very bad news for the workers and their families who are dependent [...] read more
  September 6, 2012 5:43 pm - 54 Comments
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  Better choices than digging holes in the ground - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  The Government’s “drill it, mine it, frack it” economic plan for New Zealand is a lazy gamble that belies a lack a vision. read more
  August 29, 2012 5:15 pm - 8 Comments
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  Gas hydrates and the extreme energy age - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  If you needed proof we are in the post-peak oil, extreme energy age one need just look at where the Government is going for their next fix. The Government has recently announced the first tranche of the MoBIE Science and Investment Round which included $3.2 million funding for gas hydrate exploration. read more
  August 29, 2012 11:30 am - 9 Comments
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  Locking the gates to fracking - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Next week renowned Australian environmental campaigner, Drew Hutton is touring NZ talking about the risks of coal seam gas and fracking. read more
  August 17, 2012 1:23 pm - 3 Comments
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  Smith gets it wrong on fracking - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Former Environment Minister Nick Smith has been peddling a pro-fracking article across the country’s newspapers but he can’t even get his facts straight. read more
  August 16, 2012 4:53 pm - 78 Comments
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  Newmont versus the vulnerable – my week in court - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  This week I spent 4 days in the Environment Court with some Waihi residents opposing the expansion of the mining activities in the Martha pit. It is a small variation on the 1987 Mining Licence but it could lead a new large scale underground gold mine. At the hearing, the manawhenua Ngati Hako were raising [...] read more
  August 4, 2012 2:15 pm - 8 Comments
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  Don’t Frack with NZ postcard launched - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  To mark a new phase in our campaign to protect our health and environment, this week we’re launching our Don’t Frack with NZ postcard. read more
  August 1, 2012 9:59 am - 2 Comments
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  Fracking earthquakes - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  The New Zealand Government has tried to downplay the risk of human-induced earthquakes but recent international reports show the Government should take a deeper interest. read more
  June 20, 2012 11:14 am - 3 Comments
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  Mining our future - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  I’m hitting the road with Catherine Delahunty on the Mining our Future tour. We’ll be travelling New Zealand over the coming weeks setting out the Government’s broad “drill it, mine it” agenda. We are starting with the big centres then will tour the provincial areas most affected by drilling and mining. read more
  April 10, 2012 4:24 pm - 3 Comments
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  Don’t frack up our health - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Yesterday new research was released by the Colorado School of Public Health in the US linking air pollution from fracking with serious health problems for those who live near wells. read more
  March 22, 2012 4:51 pm - 1 Comment
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  Mining the truth in Northland - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  It takes a lot of effort to mine for the truth among all the rhetoric and spin coming from the industry and our National-led Government. Currently, the Far North District Mayor is heading to a large miner’s conference in Canada to sell the minerals of Te Tai Tokerau/Northland to foreign miners. The trip has to [...] read more
  February 23, 2012 9:57 am - 40 Comments
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  Can’t or won’t? - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  On Tuesday, Steven Joyce, Minister of Economic Development and Science and Innovation, wrote about the ‘you cant’s’ of our country, in an opinion piece in the NZ Herald. Feeling that perhaps I am one of those people he criticises as ‘people who in the one breath chant “more jobs, more jobs” and then in the next breath say “but don’t do that, or that, or that”, I thought I would ask Mr Joyce a few questions about why he and... read more
  February 10, 2012 2:11 pm - 102 Comments
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  Easy to to have your say on EEZ Bill - by Gareth Hughes

  
  
  
  Submissions for the Government’s new bill regulating the Exclusive Economic Zone close this Friday and we need as many as possible to help improve this law. read more
  January 25, 2012 2:14 pm - 1 Comment
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  Massive anti-mining protests in Peru - by frog

  
  
  
  It’s not just New Zealanders who are increasingly rejecting the tired old rhetoric about “balancing” environmental protection with economic progress used to excuse environmental degradation. This from Cajamarca, Peru: read more
  December 7, 2011 2:45 pm - 3 Comments
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  A broken promise by National before a Government is even formed - by frog

  
  
  
  Here’s the National Party’s Minister of Conservation, in response to Green MP Kevin Hague’s question in Parliament a couple of months ago: Kevin Hague: Does the Minister agree with the resource consent commissioners when they said “it is abundantly clear that large scale mining is poised to invade the entire Denniston Plateau coal reserves which [...] read more
  November 30, 2011 6:38 pm - 18 Comments
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  Why is our Super Fund profiting from Norilsk, one of the world’s dirtiest miners? - by Russel Norman

  
  
  
  Norilsk Nickel is one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and palladium, as well as Russia’s leading gold producer. It’s also one of the dirtiest mining companies in the world. The company’s hometown operations in Russia have resulted in the city of Norilsk becoming one of the most polluted places in the world. Many [...] read more
  August 15, 2011 2:12 pm - 2 Comments
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  Mine safety improvements needed NOW - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  When someone heads off to work in the morning, they have a right to expect that their workplace is as safe as it can possibly be, and that they will return home again after work, safe and well. In the immediate aftermath of the Pike River mine disaster Cabinet ministers, most notably John Key himself [...] read more
  June 23, 2011 1:52 pm - 3 Comments
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  Coromandel – No More Mining, Stop the Vandals - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Last Sunday we went for a walk in the park. Some people went all the way to the Glass Earth/Newmont drilling rig high in the forest park and occupied it for a while. The rest of us with our babies and banners walked for an hour and a half up the beautiful Parikiwai Valley near [...] read more
  May 30, 2011 7:56 pm - 2 Comments
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  Blackball Mayday Speech - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  While some others were focused on political events elsewhere in the country, I was in Blackball for the annual Mayday celebrations and for the launch of a memorial wheel for those who have lost their lives in West Coast mines in recent years, most notably the Pike River 29. Families had made tiles with the [...] read more
  May 1, 2011 11:59 am - 2 Comments
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  Conservation concerns not to blame for tragedy - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  We have been supporting the Government’s decision to establish a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate both the immediate causes of the Pike River disaster and wider systemic issues that may also have been contributors, and are particularly pleased that the terms of reference have been cast sufficiently broadly. The other suggestions we have made [...] read more
  November 29, 2010 5:21 pm - 49 Comments
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  Pike River: Celebrate one man’s determination to save his mate - by frog

  
  
  
  A disaster like that which has happened at the Pike River mine is always difficult to cope with. The families of 29 miners have no idea whether their loved ones are dead or alive, or if alive, whether they can be rescued. It is tempting to want to attribute blame, whether it be to the [...] read more
  November 22, 2010 7:34 pm - 7 Comments
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  “Coromandel No More Mining” – It’s Not Over! - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Yesterday about 50 local Coromandel people and some Auckland supporters protested peacefully against a Newmont Gold drilling rig at Opoutere, a small coastal community on the Coromandel. The drilling rig is working in forestry land upstream of the beautiful Opoutere estuary and dotterel recovery programme area. It is interesting that Newmont has funded a salary [...] read more
  November 1, 2010 3:52 pm - No Comments
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  I can’t write satire, but Secret Agent ‘Lhaws’ can - by frog

  
  
  
  I’m a rather boring political blogger. I like to look at the evidence, see if it supports the political spin, and comment accordingly. But it seems we have a ‘secret agent” in the Greens who can write very clever satire, at least on mining. The agent’s under cover name is “Lhaws” read more
  July 25, 2010 9:16 pm - 4 Comments
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  Reading the National Government’s playbook - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  It’s a bit of a hobby of mine – trying to infer the content of the advice they have received from Crosby-Textor from the behaviour of the Government. Of course it may not be that it’s just Crosby-Textor’s advice: some might come from Stephen Joyce himself, but you get the idea. Some of it’s obvious, [...] read more
  July 22, 2010 6:00 pm - 7 Comments
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  We Love It – We Protected It! - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  We Love It – We Protected It! Today the Green Party is preparing to celebrate with hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders who stood up against the mining of Schedule Four conservation land. The Government has acknowledged the more than 44,000 signatures on a Green Party petition, the 40,000 people who made submissions and the [...] read more
  July 20, 2010 12:03 pm - 44 Comments
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  Underground Mining – Yeah Right - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Yesterday I went up on a beautiful mountain, Te Aroha, which forms the stern of the Hauraki waka. High on this mountain is a “small” abandoned mine site which is in fact a series of visible scars overhanging the small town of Te Aroha on the plain below. read more
  July 16, 2010 6:57 am - 8 Comments
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  Deep South has strong conservation message for Government - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  I’m sure that when the Government first developed its plan to “unlock” for mining conservation areas currently protected by Schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, it anticipated that the plan would be opposed by conservationists and trendy lefties. But – the Government would have reasoned – such people don’t vote National anyway. What an [...] read more
  June 28, 2010 5:34 pm - 15 Comments
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  Nightmare at Nightcaps – a coal mine in town - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  I never knew what Nightcaps was. Nightcaps have had coal mining since the late 1880s and have experienced tragedy as well as identity through coal mining. read more
  June 24, 2010 11:35 am - 13 Comments
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  Big Gerry treads lightly on Solid Energy privatisation plans - by frog

  
  
  
  Earlier today, Solid Energy Chair John Palmer advocated, in a presentation before the start of the NZX Annual Meeting in Wellington, the partial privatisation of Solid Energy. We want a Yes or a No, Gerry, not your equivocation! read more
  June 17, 2010 7:15 pm - 10 Comments
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  Mine waste, not National Parks - by David Clendon

  
  
  
  I hope Gerry Brownlee and his pro-mining supporters read Good magazine. In the latest issue there is a very informative article “Sitting on a Gold Mine” that confirms that there is plenty of gold already above ground, and begs the question of why we would sacrifice our conservation estate to dig up any more. Quoting [...] read more
  June 14, 2010 12:23 pm - 11 Comments
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  Mining Schedule 4 is economically negligent - by frog

  
  
  
  That’s a tough word, but to my mind, selling off our clean, green image for only $36 per voter (one off price!) can only be described as negligent. read more
  May 31, 2010 3:27 pm - 3 Comments
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  Tourism Industry joins the dots - by David Clendon

  
  
  
  Great to see the Tourism Industry Association contributing to the debate about some of the choices this government is making, and how it could affect this critical sector of our economy, which last financial year accounted for more than 16% of our foreign exchange earnings. In its submission to the question of mining on Schedule [...] read more
  May 24, 2010 9:05 am - 9 Comments