More clarity on impacts of gold mining called for
Local group Sustainable Tarras has held meetings in Dunedin and Wanaka over the past week and garnered significant support from the community in its opposition to the Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project located in Tarras.
The project is being carried out by Australian-based mining company Santana Minerals and will establish an open pit and underground gold mine on Bendigo and Ardgour Stations in Central Otago. The open pit will be 1000m long, 850m wide and 200m deep.
The meeting held by Sustainable Tarras at the Wanaka Presbyterian Church on Thursday evening was attended by the Otago Daily Times, and featured industry experts and residents showing their opposition to the project.
Sustainable Tarras chairwoman Suze Keith said about 100 people had indicated they would attend the meeting, but the turnout exceeded expectations, an estimated 180 people turning up.
"It really reinforces that we're not on our own, because we are a small community, and that the Wanaka community do care beyond the boundary of their town," she said.
The meeting also included videos sent in from Green MPs Scott Willis and Lan Pham as well as Dunedin MP Rachel Brooking, who all showed their support for the work the group was doing.
One of the main speakers at the meeting was Sustainable Tarras member Rob van der Mark.
Concerned about the impacts of the project, the Tarras local took it upon himself to do a deep dive into the impacts of this project several months ago and said he felt there were many gaps in the information available.
Throughout his speech, he highlighted the lack of clear communication and transparency he faced when he approached Santana Minerals.
"We've had good dialogue with Santana in the past ... We don't learn a lot, but I think they learn a lot from us," he said.
Major concerns discussed at the meeting included concerns chemicals such as arsenic and cyanide could potentially be released into the air or seep into the ground and local creeks.
The processing plant for the mine will be located in the lower Shepherds Valley and chemicals used to process gold such as cyanide will be held at a tailings storage facility.
The storage facility is set to be 260m wide and will include a tailings dam.
"Santana will do their best to clean it up ... but everybody who has large dams knows that dams leak and it's that long-term risk that we will be left with," Mr van der Mark said.
In a statement released on the same day as the Sustainable Tarras Wanaka meeting, Santana Minerals said the processing plant would ensure cyanide concentrations were below the level deemed safe for wildlife before chemicals were discharged into the tailings storage facility.
As the company prepares to finish its fast-track application, it stated many environmental assessments had been completed and several key ecological reports were still in progress.
The Sustainable Tarras team are calling for the company to further involve the community by being more open about the reports it is undertaking.
"They're telling their shareholders they've completed all these background reports. Well, when we ask for them, we get stonewalled," Mr van der Mark said.
Santana Minerals said feedback from its regular drop-in sessions had been largely positive, and the company was committed to ensuring the project was beneficial to the community.
"For many of our team this is our home too, and our focus is on listening, refining and working together to build a project that Central Otago can be proud of for generations to come," Santana Minerals chief executive Damian Spring said in a statement.
rawan.saadi@odt.co.nz
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