Harbour gold plan draws ire

By ANNE BESTON

As the debate over mining in the Coromandel erupts again, a group of enthusiasts is forging ahead with a scheme to reclaim gold from the mudflats of Coromandel Harbour.

Passions on both sides of the goldmining debate have been sparked anew by Colville/Coromandel Community Board's backing of a wharf and reclamation scheme to be paid for by extracting gold washed into the harbour during the mining peak of the late 1890s.

The anti-mining lobby immediately accused locals of being in thrall to the mining industry.

And the board and its supporters face other daunting obstacles.

Kristina Temel, petroleum and minerals policy manager at Crown Minerals, part of the Ministry of Economic Development, said the scheme would have to go through three regulatory processes:

* A minerals licence from the Minister of Energy in a foreshore area protected from mining.

* Consents under the Resource Management Act.

* A permit from the Department of Conservation to access a coastal area where all inner waterways are deemed worthy of special protection.

"Even if they were able to get a [mining] permit from us and consents, it would mean essentially mining in a restricted area," Ms Temel said.

The community board's plan involves sucking silt from the harbour and piling rocks and fill from floodworks into a 5-10ha reclamation area where a ferry wharf and yacht berths will be established.

The sludge would be sent to Waihi to extract the gold - estimated to be worth up to $30 million.

Supporters say it would solve three problems at once by removing toxic tailings waste from the harbour, creating an all-tide wharf and providing a place to dump hundreds of tonnes of silt and fill from planned flood protection works.

Thames Coromandel District councillor Tony Brljevich, widely regarded as a greenie, finds himself offside with his natural allies.

"The anti-mining lobby thinks we have a mining company in the closet," he said. "They're concerned we'll set a precedent - that if we get in and clean up the harbour and make money, it will be open slather for mining companies."

But Barry Brickell, 67, painter, tourist railway operator and potter, is so enthusiastic about the planned wharf that he has offered to help build a miniature tram link between it and the town.

"It's not mining, it's a clean-up of the harbour," he said.

"Coromandel could become the gateway to the peninsula."

Mark Tugendhaft of Coromandel Peninsula Watchdog, the group widely credited as pivotal in having mining outlawed on conservation land north of the Kopu-Hikuai Rd in 1997, is implacable in his opposition to the project.

"We will object to anything that is mining. It's illegal."

He goes as far as suggesting Mr Brljevich and the board have been mixing with "the wrong friends" and believes a mining company lurks behind what appears to be a community board-driven project.

Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, a resident of Kauaeranga Valley near Thames, said the project could be the thin end of the wedge.

"There will be gold in the marine sediment all the way up the coast between Thames and Coromandel."

But the local constituency MP, Sandra Goudie of National, backs the community board: "People are jumping up and down saying it's mining in the harbour but it's about reclamation and floodworks."