September 2013
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Claudelands a winner - Page 11
Northland eyes mineral wealth Karen Phelps Millions of dollars look likely to be spent in Northland over the next few years after the recent mineral exploration permit offers to three companies as a result of the Northland 2012 Competitive Tender. “We now have five new exploration permits [being offered] in an area that hasn’t seen much exploration at a time when global exploration funds are limited,” says New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals national manager of minerals Sefton Darby. “That’s really bucking the international trend and is a substantial increase in exploration activity in Northland.” New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals received a total of 11 permit applications from five companies. Five permits have been offered to three companies – Tai Tokerau Minerals Limited, Waimatenui Exploration Limited and De Grey Mining Limited. The five-year permits allow exploration to be undertaken in defined areas of Northland. Prior to the tender, Northland only had one operating exploration permit offered to De Grey Mining Limited. The others are new companies formed especially to apply for bids under the tender. Far North mayor Wayne Brown, who is one of the directors of Tai Tokerau Minerals Limited, says he got involved when he got told to put his money where his mouth was. “I was saying to people it [the Northland 2012 Tender] was a good thing and they should get involved. Someone said ‘why don’t you put some money in then’,” he says. “We’re [the company] a bunch of people prepared to take a bet and live with the financial consequences of not finding anything. We also have the capacity to do something with it if we do.” Tai Tokerau Minerals Limited expects to invest up to $2m over the next three years and all going according to plan will start a drill programme in 18 months drilling 300 metres in the first year and 1000 metres in the second. Waimatenui Exploration Limited has been formed by a group of local sheep and beef farmers - Arthur Rushton, Bruce Morris, Roddy McDonald and John Schepens - who believe they might be sitting on top of mineral rich land. Morris, who is a keen rock collector, has suspected that his land is mineral rich for 20 years since he found rocks when wandering around his farm which tested positive for traces of gold, silver, zinc and copper. His findings led him to take a walk around his neighbours’ farms where he made similar discoveries.
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The permit offered to Waimatenui Exploration is for an area north of Lake Taharoa, most of which is located on the farmers’ own land. “We have found some individual small areas that are rich enough to mine so we wanted the prospecting license to drill more deeply and hopefully find bigger deposits. If we find them we will get in to mining them,” says Morris. The farmers plan to invest around $300,000 up front to either hire or purchase a drilling rig to take samples over the next three years for analysis. If their suspicions prove correct it could be a nice windfall for these hill country farmers. Morris says that even if they don’t choose to personally complete the mining they could either sell the mineral rights to a mining company or join with one in a joint venture. Morris says for him the venture is not just about money – it’s a personal passion. “I’m the most interested person. The others don’t seem to be very good at finding interesting rocks but I find them. ‘We’ve had a geologist and a geophysicist take surface samples and they think the signs are great too. We’re not just a bunch of farmers dreaming.” De Grey Mining Limited has been awarded the other two permits. De Grey is an exploration company listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) with epithermal gold-silver projects in the Deseado and Somuncura Massifs, Argentina and various interests in Western Australia. It recently secured by transfer the Puhipuhi exploration permit in Northland. The parties now have to clarify the exact ownership of the minerals in the land and when they have done so the permits will be officially granted, says Darby. “We are confident that five permits will be awarded. When you look at the exploration commitment in these permits there will be $7-7.5m spent in the next three years potentially rising to $13m over five years. ‘In Northland that’s a massive step up in exploration activity. “In the long term we are looking for that to convert to mineable deposits which could mean hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue, hundreds of jobs and big potential for downstream suppliers.” Wayne Brown says there have been some murmurings of opposition locally but he feels most people are in support. “People have said isn’t it terrible multinationals are coming here. Now they’re saying isn’t it terrible we’ve only got tin pot locals [who have been offered permits]. “It’s much more low key than what people might think. It’s a small area of land.”
Newmont to appeal conditions - PAGE 2
Growth curve for Tauranga.... Prime Minister John Key officially opens the Port of Tauranga’s new container terminal facilities this year, watched by port chief executive, Mark Cairns, left, and chairman, John Parker. The new facilities include a $30 million, 170-metre extension of the wharf at the Tauranga Container Terminal, while a new ship-to-shore twin-lift gantry crane has been installed increasing the number of the terminal’s container cranes to six, with a seventh crane to be commissioned next year. The development reflects ongoing growth in the port’s container shipping - story page 6.
Coromandel dredging concerns - PAGE 2
Chatham Rock on the rise - PAGE 3
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