Pauanui licence for gold miner

Newmont Gold has won the right to explore for gold and silver in a 3000ha block stretching towards the holiday settlement of Pauanui on the Coromandel.

Under terms of the Crown Minerals permit, the miner must do geotechnical work and 1500m of sample drilling in the block which also runs behind the coastal settlements of Opoutere and Ohui.

Newmont's external affairs manager Kelvyn Eglinton said it was south of the line on the Coromandel where exploration was permitted and the company's interest was mainly in forestry land.

The permit area borders Tairua Harbour which runs past Tairua and Pauanui, the location of some of the country's most expensive waterside homes.

Although there was an obligatory work programme it was over a five-year period. "It's an area of land that became available north of where we've been operating so at this stage we haven't got any plans for what we're going to do there," Eglinton said.

The company was consulting the Opoutere Ratepayers and Residents Association.

Newmont has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on open-cast mining at the Waihi's historic Martha mine and developing the Favona underground nearby. Because resource stocks are dwindling at existing mines it is looking further afield, including inland from Onemana Beach, south of the new permit block.

Mining opponents say renewed mining could reignite the bitter fighting of the 1970s and 1980s, in spite of an accord which sets boundaries and rules for what types of mining is permitted. Eglinton said the company will do more drilling at Onemana soon.

"We've found narrow veins, nothing mineable but enough for us to go back and have a look," he said. "It's a lot like fishing - we've got a lot of little nibbles but nothing there that we would keep."

Newmont will next month make a decision on whether to extend the Martha Mine further east, which will cost around $40 million but could extend its life for another two years.

Last month part of the eastern pit wall slumped after heavy rain, forcing mining to be suspended for a week.