Resources Minister Shane Jones has released a draft strategy for mineral mining, aiming to double the sector’s export value to $2 billion by 2035.
The strategy led by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment also included boosting the workforce from 5000 to 7000 regional jobs, producing a “critical minerals” list for New Zealand, and completing a stocktake of the country’s mineral potential.
The strategy also noted New Zealand’s “significant amounts of different types and grades of coal deposits”, and said it recognised the interests of Treaty partners in the protection and management of mineral resources.
“No longer will these communities with rich histories intertwined with mining be told they cannot utilise the rich mineral endowments contained in their land,” Jones said in a media release.
“My vision is that we change the prevailing mantra about mining to one that doesn’t begin and end with extraction but one that focuses on our mineral needs, economic opportunities, and our ability to deliver on this while benefiting our environment and communities.”
Jones’ foreword for the strategy argued New Zealand’s production was limited to a handful of minerals and metals, with “our vast mineral reserve” remaining largely unexplored.
The announcement came alongside a speech he delivered in Blackball on the West Coast, saying mining could be a “vehicle for New Zealand’s transformation”.
“So often natural resource debates are captured by resource management insiders. They conveniently overstate risk, understate cost, and rarely generate solutions for economic growth,” he said.
He argued the industry had “robust environmental protections” as a business-as-usual approach, and extraction was being sidelined and stigmatised.’
“Some people argue against minerals extraction, but gladly rely on the conveniences of modern society that are enabled by those resources,” he said.
“As long it’s not in my backyard, it appears. The problem with that is we are relying on other countries to meet many of our minerals needs, and their supply can be fragile, volatile, unreliable, and sometimes without the regulatory rigour we apply to our own operators.”
He said the strategy would clarify where mining could occur, with schedule 4 land “off the table under my watch - but not all conservation land is equal”.
“A high-wage economy depends on affordable and reliable energy. In other words, we need to drill, baby, drill,” he said.
“Taking full advantage of the resources at our disposal will allow us to get electricity prices under control and ease the cost-of-living crisis for the families who are struggling most.”
