Today's Letters to the Editor from readers cover topics including mining, Luxon's leadership and car emissions.
Sober reflection needed on need to mine gold
Sir Ian Taylor (ODT 7.3.26) raises two main concerns about the proposed Bendigo-Ophir gold mine.
For one, the real return to New Zealand as a whole, which comes through tax, may be very little. Australia, where I now live, was once so desperate to encourage mining, that they allowed overseas companies to extract natural gas without having to pay tax, a decision many now regret.
Sir Ian’s other concern is that waste would have to be stored in a tailings facility. Sober reflection is needed to make sure all costs, financial and loss of landscape, are covered.
As a child growing up in Central Otago, I remember the heaps of tailings left over from earlier gold diggings as a quirky feature of the landscape.
But the world now is becoming transformed by runaway climate change. Some of the effects can be countered by using renewable sources of energy, principally hydro, solar and wind sources. Storage of the power generated when the sun doesn’t shine, the wind doesn’t blow, and droughts dry up rivers, has been a problem
Fortunately, there have been huge advances in batteries to provide storage. These require a suite of minerals but not gold.
There will be an acceleration of mining world-wide for these ‘‘critical minerals’’, but gold is not worth the cost of mining it.
Jock Churchman
South Australia
Robust gold
Re the ‘‘Sirs’’ and their recent opinion pieces, on the proposed gold mine in Bendigo-Orphir. It is always very emotive stuff using words from a crime report. ‘‘Close-range blast’’ and ‘‘gaping wounds’’. And by Australians no less, always the Australians.
They do not wish to be misrepresented or thought of in a bad light though. Sir Ian was very upset when he felt he was misquoted as saying ‘‘toxic sludge’’ instead of ‘‘toxic waste’’. Sir Grahame thinks it is unfortunate that the issue is being decided down class lines, yet then posits an analogy utilising a ‘‘$2 million house’’ containing ‘‘$4m of art and antiques’’. Sir Grahame, I hate to break it to you, but farmer’s furniture is not usually antique, it’s just old.
Sir Ian then gives an example of a tailings dam failure from a copper mine, that extracted gold as a byproduct. Bendigo-Orphir will be a gold mine. This is like comparing dairy farming to orchards and shows a lack of intellectual honesty.
Tailings dam failures are typically from decades-long copper, iron ore, coal, or bauxite mining with unsound, dated mining techniques, and after years of heavy rainfalls. Using bauxite mine tailings dam collapses in rainforests, to scaremonger for a gold mine in semi-arid Central Otago, as Sustainable Tarras does, is intellectually dishonest as well.
A large gold mine would make the New Zealand economy more robust, and provide income to the country.
Adam Shane Inwood
Nelson
Hubris exposed
Prime Minister Luxon has definitely been under pressure over the past week, stumbling from one gaffe to the next. Saying that he misspoke only makes it worse.
The man looks completely out of his depth. As the country faces global supply chain issues Luxon’s job is only going to become more difficult. It is unlikely that the media will blame Luxon for international events outside his control, as they did with the previous Labour government, but the polls are still very sobering for him. The Opposition must be torn between schadenfreude, seeing Luxon so glaringly exposed, and yet not wanting him replaced with someone more competent.
Natalie Wilson
Oamaru
The arguments contained in a puff of blue smoke
Your editorial (Getting down and dirty with the govt – 7.3.26) is overly emotive and sadly oblivious to the many nuances of this matter.
Firstly, it has been a long time since I saw a car emitting ‘‘puffs of blue smoke’’ (the last one I did see was a very late model car in which some engine part had obviously failed).
Secondly, there are strong arguments to suggest that it is environmentally more responsible to keep an old car running than it is to purchase a new one; it all depends on whether you are focusing solely on emissions created within NZ or whether you also add in emissions created overseas (on behalf of New Zealanders, in the manufacture of new cars) that of course also accumulate in the global atmosphere.
Our fleet average age is pretty static, which means that more efficient engines are gradually being adopted. A huge proportion of Kiwis face obscenely high housing costs, meaning that buying a new car (or a used electric one) is not an option.
Another concern is the huge proliferation of models available on the new car market. I suspect that many will be simply unserviceable once they’ve aged; the era of the disposable car may be upon us. Not exactly environmentally responsible!
Jack Crawford
Macandrew Bay
Address Letters to the Editor to: Otago Daily Times, PO Box 517, 52-56 Lower Stuart St, Dunedin. Email: letters@odt.co.nz
