New Mining Proposals
Mining company Oceana Gold (New Zealand) Ltd has lodged applications with the Hauraki District Council for future mining development in and around Waihī.
There are two proposed projects:
Waihī North Project
Waihīi North Project is significant in scale and has 5 main components including –
- a new underground mine at Wharekirauponga,
- a new tailings storage facility (TSF3),
- a new open pit (the Gladstone Open Pit),
- a rock storage facility (the Northern Rock Stack)
- and a significant upgrade of the current processing plant.
Resource consent applications to allow the Waihī North Project to proceed were lodged with Hauraki District Council and Waikato Regional Council on 23 June 2022. Both councils have reviewed the respective resource consent applications and are now seeking further information from Oceana Gold so the applications can be fully understood and assessed.
Requests for further information
Information on the Waihī North Project can be found at: www.waihinorth.info and the further information requests by HDC, and by WRC are available to view below:
- Further information request by Hauraki District Council (PDF, 190.7KB)
- HDC - appendix 1 Planning (PDF, 5MB)
- HDC - appendix 2 Acoustics - Acousafe (PDF, 968.3KB)
- HDC - appendix 3 Vibration - Blastechnology (PDF, 5.8MB)
- HDC - Appendix 4 Ecology - Alliance Ecology (PDF, 4.5MB)
- HDC - Appendix 5 Geotechnical - Dalmour Pty Ltd (PDF, 428.2KB)
- HDC - Appendix 6 Hazardous Substances - Resources Consulting (PDF, 1.2MB)
- HDC - Appendix 7 Contaminated land hdGEO (PDF, 896.6KB)
- HDC - Appendix 8 Landscape - Mansergh Graham Landscape Architects (PDF, 4.5MB)
- HDC - Appendix 9 Social Impacts - Quigley and Watts (PDF, 2.2MB)
- HDC - Appendix 10 Social Impacts - Quigley and Watts (PDF, 647.3KB)
- Further information request by Waikato Regional Council (PDF, 729.5KB)
After receiving advice from Oceana Gold, both the Waikato Regional Council and Hauraki District Council set the timeframe for receipt of the further information as on, or before, 27 January 2023. This timeframe was subsequently extended to 31 March 2024 to enable Oceana Gold to gather the further information requested.
On 27 March 2024 Oceana Gold wrote to both Councils to advise good progress is still being made on responses to the further information requests, but they are not yet complete. Oceana Gold also noted the recent introduction of the Fast-track Approvals Bill by the Government, and the potential for this to offer an alternative route to apply for and secure approvals for large projects, like the Waihi North Project.
Both Councils subsequently agreed to revise the timeframe for receipt of the remaining further information to 31 October 2024.
Oceana Gold again wrote to the Councils on 29 October 2024 to advise that, due to the need for further analysis and fieldwork in relation to potential impacts on groundwater, an additional five months would be needed to respond to the remaining further information requests.
Oceana Gold asked both Hauraki District Council and Waikato Regional Council to revise the timeframe for receipt of further information to 31 March 2025 (or earlier if the information is available earlier) and this has been agreed to.
Martha Open Pit Project
Oceana Gold is proposing to further extend the life of mining in Waihi through the development of the Martha Open Pit Project. The project is intended to integrate with the Proposed Waihi North Project and has three main components:
- An expansion of the existing Martha Pit.
- A lift on the proposed Tailings Storage Facility (if consented via the Waihi North Project)
- An increase in volume for the proposed Northern Rock Stack (if consented via the Waihi North Project)
A pre-cursor to expansion of the existing Martha Pit is a proposed change to the Hauraki District Plan to enable a resource consent/s to be applied for in the future.
Proposed Plan Change 6 seeks to rezone 47 properties (owned by, or under the control of Oceana Gold) to Martha Mineral Zone in the Hauraki District Plan. All 47 properties are in the vicinity of the existing Martha Pit.
Further information can be found in ‘Proposed Plan Change 6: Extension of Martha Mineral Zone’, which is a private plan change request by Oceana Gold.
View Proposed Plan Change 6: Extension of Martha Mineral Zone
Further information
Further information on the proposed projects, in the first instance, should be sought from Oceana Gold in Waihī www.waihigold.co.nz, phone 07 863 8192.
