Seabed mining explored

NIWA research vessel Tangaroa. Photo / Supplied

A Government funded mission to survey the mineral wealth beneath New Zealand waters is raising fears the seafloor could one day be dug up by miners.

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (Niwa) research vessel Tangaroa will set sail on Wednesday with a team of 16 scientists to survey two underwater volcanoes and ascertain their value.

The volcanoes, about 200km north-east of Auckland, are believed to be rich in iron, and copper and contain lesser concentrations of gold.

Expedition leader and Niwa marine geologist Dr Geoffroy Lemarche said one reason the project had Government funding was the "economic potential".

Mining critics, buoyed by last weekend's protest in Auckland, expressed concern about where the surveying could lead.

Forest & Bird spokeswoman Karen Baird said the Resource Management Act ended 19km from the shore.

The biologically unique region was home to hundreds of underwater volcanoes and stringent controls were needed "before you even thought of seabed mining".

"There's potentially so much good down there, not just in terms of biodiversity, but what we can learn about life itself."

The survey area is close to the Kermadec Islands Marine Sanctuary, described by the World Wildlife Fund as "teeming with an incredible array of plant and animal life - much of which is found nowhere else on the planet, yet faces future threats".

Green Party co-leader Meteria Turei said while marine reserves are protected under schedule 4 of the Crown Minerals Act, experience showed this was no guarantee the area would be spared from mining.

"We expected at some point marine reserves might be reconsidered by the Government. We hope that's not the case, but we can't trust it."

Policy on mining was being concocted in private, Turei said. "And it's the secrecy that's really undermining the Government."

A spokesman for Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee said such concerns were baseless: "We have no plans whatsoever to prospect offshore, or in marine reserves, and there's no offshore Schedule 4 reconsiderations whatsoever," he said.

Lemarche said the surveying would be non-invasive and rely on seismic and magnetic measurements. "We're not drilling or coring," he said.

The Tangaroa will return to New Zealand on May 17, where it will pick up a team of biologists and return to the volcanoes.

Niwa deep water biologist Malcolm Clark will lead the second leg of the expedition and said he hoped its findings would mitigate any damage future mining might cause.

"We're trying to establish whether there are any particular communities or specifics particularly vulnerable to mining activity," he said.

Clark said data he gathered would help inform debate: "We have got time to find out what's down there, and what the likely impact of mining is before we get too carried away with the development of these resources."

He said the trip had nothing to do with Government mining policy: "It's happening independently of that as part of a need to understand more about undersea New Zealand."

matt.nippert@hos.co.nz