PM pledges to proceed with caution in mining stocktake

Prime Minister John Key says he knows how important conservation land is to the tourism industry and the Government's planned mineral stocktake is a first step to find out what is there and where it is.

"As Minister of Tourism I'm not going to do something silly with the DoC [Department of Conservation] estate," he said yesterday. 'I recognise the importance of that to the New Zealand economy.

"But on the other side of the coin, let's understand what we're dealing with and what the issues are."

Energy and Resources Minister Gerry Brownlee last week announced the stocktake of minerals in conservation land protected by schedule four of the Crown Minerals Act.

The estimated value of untapped minerals in New Zealand has been put at about $140 billion and around 70 per cent of that involves conservation land.

Tourism operators have warned that mining it could put the $20 billion industry at risk and say natural scenery and landscapes are the main reason international visitors come to New Zealand.

Conservationists and environmental groups have also warned against mining conservation land.

Mr Key said the stocktake would be carried out so people understood what mineral resources were in protected areas.

"Modern mining is quite different from what we've seen in the past. Old-fashioned mining techniques did leave a scar on the landscape, modern mining techniques are quite different."

Mr Key said the stocktake might discover that some of the protected areas were "quite low quality" conservation land.

"There might be possibilities there but that's a long way away from having a stocktake."

- NZPA