Money spent trying to strike it rich soars 130pc

The search for gold and minerals is heating up across New Zealand with the amount spent on exploration and prospecting soaring by nearly 130 per cent in the past year.

Crown Minerals, a branch of the Ministry of Economic Development, said the jump was boosted by an increase in gold exploration in the Coromandel region.

Prospecting is counted as low-impact activity such as aerial surveying or taking rock samples while exploration includes drilling holes and major earthworks.

Last month, the High Court at Auckland confirmed an Environment Court ruling against a prohibition imposed by the Thames Coromandel District Council in 1998 on mining in coastal and conservation zones and in all recreation and open-space policy areas.

Crown Minerals said the new statistics reflected the strong state of the sector here. The area with the most expenditure on prospecting was Bay of Plenty (which includes the Coromandel-Taupo volcanic zone gold province), where more than $750,000 was spent. The Northland and Southland regions also saw a large increase in prospecting.

Crown Minerals also said that the world's largest gold company, Newmont Mining, had been given 10 gold and silver exploration permits for areas in the southern Coromandel near Te Aroha.

The Crown owns all oil and gas reserves beneath the land's surface as well as all gold, silver and precious metals. Royalties are paid to the Government as part of the mining process. Coal, however, is different, with much of it privately owned.