Coromandel residents oppose mining survey

Local residents and anti-mining group Coromandel Watchdog today blocked Newmont staff from entering forestry and conservation land in the Kauaeranga Valley near Thames and then escorted them from the valley.

"We have discovered that Newmont is carrying out geophyscial surveys with a view to mining in the Kauaeranga Valley,'' Coromandel Watchdog co-ordinator Renee Annan said.

"The Kauaeranga Valley is a highly valued recreational area with over 80,000 people visiting each summer, many heading up to the world famous Pinnacles.''

Local residents and Coromandel Watchdog members prevented Newmont staff from entering an area where they had been carrying out tests that would identify potential gold deposits. The company staff then decided to leave and were escorted out of the valley by 50 people, Ms Annan said.

Newmont external affairs manager Sefton Darby said he was surprised at the reaction to the work.

`What we're doing up there is incredibly low-level field activity,'' he said.

"We know that Newmont and other mining companies have applications or existing permits to explore a large part of the northern Coromandel, and part of this is in Schedule Four land,'' Ms Annan said.

The public needs to know that the mining companies are still intent on mining Schedule Four land and that despite the victory in 2010, exploration activities cannot be legally stopped on this land. That is why we are taking non-violent direct action.Today's peaceful protest is just the first of many unless Newmont leave our area.

Exploration is a huge risk because once a gold deposit is identified, particularly with the current price of gold, the mining company will continue to attempt to expand under or around the conservation estate.

Ms Annan said that local residents were determined to protect Coromandel from any more mining and were concerned about arsenic contamination recently identified in a subdivision in Thames.

We have enough issues to deal with from historical mining, the last thing we need is Newmont expanding out of Waihi into our precious conservation places.

Mr Darby rejected any link between what Newmont was doing and recent issues in Thames related to mining several decades ago.

"They're drawing an incredibly long, dishonest bow''.

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