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Latest fromPaparoa National Park
![Pike River: 'Simple plan' beset by problems](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=808)
Pike River: 'Simple plan' beset by problems
The riches of the Paparoa Range were enticing, but the cost of extracting them was greater than anyone imagined, writes Grant Bradley
![<i>John Armstrong:</i> Better to bury failure than risk defeat](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=808)
<i>John Armstrong:</i> Better to bury failure than risk defeat
Better an utter, total if humiliating backdown than a messy compromise that keeps the mining issue alive into election year.
![No open cast mining on conservation land - PM](/pf/resources/images/placeholders/placeholder_l.png?d=808)
No open cast mining on conservation land - PM
There will be no open cast mining on Great Barrier Island or Coromandel, John Key assured Parliament today, while under attack over the Govt's mining plan.