Rare snail given ministerial protection

A community of giant snails sitting on 5 million tonnes of valuable coal on the West Coast have ministerial protection following a High Court ruling yesterday.

The rare Powelliphanta "Augustus" snails were first discovered in 1996 and named after the Mt Augustus ridgeline they were found on, within Solid Energy's Stockton opencast mine.

The Crown company wants to mine the snails' 5ha habitat and plans to move up to 100, or 10 per cent of the population, to an adjoining site about 800m away.

The Royal Forest and Bird Society says the snails risk extinction if the mining goes ahead, and it asked the court to protect them under the Wildlife Act.

Yesterday the court issued a declaration requiring Solid Energy to have the consent of both the Conservation Minister and the Energy Minister before it carries out any activity which would kill the snails or put them in the company's possession.

Green Party conservation spokeswoman Metiria Turei said the "commonsense" ruling left the snails one step further away from extinction.

Solid Energy yesterday applied for consent from the ministers via the Department of Conservation to "direct transfer" the snails.

Solid Energy chief executive Don Elder said the snails' habitat was on about 5 million tonnes of high-quality coal not found anywhere else on the mine.

- NZPA