OceanaGold confirmed on Monday it had received non-notified consents from the Otago Regional Council to continue operations at Macraes mine until 2030.
But two prominent environmental action groups — Greenpeace and the Environmental Defence Society (EDS) — have joined Forest & Bird in expressing concern about the process.
The consents allow mining to continue at Macraes through to about 2030 and authorise the clearance of a small area of grass and tussock on land near the Innes Mills Pit, and to continue depositing tailings into the existing Frasers Tailings Storage Facility.
The company will withdraw the other consent application for expanding its operations to an area known as MP4, which was on hold pending a hearing.
This application will now be prepared to go through the fast-track legislation.
EDS chairman Gary Taylor said he was surprised that an operation as large as Macraes would be able to go through the Resource Management Act without public submissions.
"I’d have thought that something like that should have been notified, but the notification rules have been tightened up by the government and it may well be that it’s a correct decision to do it non-notified.
"We’d much prefer the law to require big operations like mines to go through a full notified process because the public’s entitled to have a say — I think that’s especially the case when the applicant is an offshore entity."
Mr Taylor said the fact OceanaGold was preparing to "go for broke" on the fast-track process was more concerning.
"There is a fast-track approvals amendment Bill presently in Parliament that will shut down local community groups and NGOs from involvement even further than the present fast-track Act does."
Mr Taylor said regardless of the merits of OceanaGold’s operation, there were worrying precedents being set by the upcoming changes to fast track.
"Under the fast-track Act, of course, there’s no public notice in the same way that there is under the Resource Management Act.
"You’ve got to monitor the EPA [Environmental Protection Authority] website, and if you see an application coming up that you have an interest in, you’ve got to write to the panel and ask to be heard and you may or may not be heard.
"That right is being clearly curtailed by this amendment Bill that’s before the House at the moment.
"So it’s all tracking towards community disengagement rather than engagement."
Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop said it was unacceptable that this gold-mine extension was approved without public input.
"Decisions with clear environmental impacts, like increasing the area where mine tailings get dumped, should never happen behind closed doors.
"OceanaGold, a Canadian mining giant, is planning to use the fast-track law to bypass environmental scrutiny and expand its gold mine in Otago — including dumping more toxic waste."
OceanaGold has insisted that under the fast-track process the same investigative and evidential rigour and the same environmental standards would remain.
ORC general manager environmental delivery Joanna Gilroy said the decision on non-notification was made in line with the notification tests in the RMA.
