Mr Jones said mining royalties from Santana Minerals would flow into Central Otago, but the details of any "revenue sharing" had not yet been drilled into.
He spoke to the Otago Daily Times as the Otago Central Lakes Regional Deal negotiations began and as a Central Otago mayoral candidate suggested royalties from the proposed mine could be used to offset increasing rates.
However, Mr Jones was unequivocal about who had the right to mining royalties.
"I’ve sought Crown law advice just to reassure myself what is the specific legal standing of royalty sharing — and royalty payments are exclusively the preserve of the Crown," he said.
Anyone pressuring mining investors to meet ratepayers’ ambitions would be on very treacherous territory, he said.
"The reason I sought Crown law advice is if I need to pursue legal action as the mining minister to prevent the leakage of royalty revenue disappearing because of local extortion."
A Santana Minerals memorandum on the economic impacts of its proposed Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project said it would add an estimated $5.8 billion to New Zealand’s GDP at an average of $359million per year.
The company’s analysis showed in about 14 years of mining at its Bendigo-Ophir site, it would generate $6.75b in revenue.
It would pay more than $1b in corporate taxes and $448m in royalties, the memo said.
Mr Jones said he would not stand in the way of royalties being shared in eventual regional deals but there would be a process to ensure the money was being used for building regional resilience and infrastructure.
"I personally will be a loud supporter for that model of revenue sharing," he said.
The Otago Central Lakes regional deal moved a step closer this winter when a memorandum of understanding was signed between the Central Otago and Queenstown Lakes district councils, the Otago Regional Council and the government to move forward an initial proposal for a regional deal.
The proposal included "anticipated mining royalties" being reinvested in the area impacted by mining growth.
"The final shape and form of the revenue-sharing model could very well be wrapped up in a regional-central government deal, but these matters still have to be teased through by Cabinet," Mr Jones said.
Queenstown Lakes Mayor Glyn Lewers said part of the original pitch for the regional deal was consideration of royalties coming back to the region if the mine went ahead.
It was likely the government would want a say in how any returned royalties were spent and it would likely want to see it put into infrastructure that enabled economic growth in the Otago Central Lakes "sub-region", Mr Lewers said.
"I think there’s a fair bit of work to be done and there’s a fair bit of negotiation to happen."
Last week, the Otago Central Lakes regional deal negotiation committee announced Conor English as its negotiator.
A statement said Mr English was a director at Silvereye, a government relations, public relations and strategic marketing communications consultancy.
He was formerly an independent adviser to the Reserve Bank of New Zealand and chief executive of Federated Farmers New Zealand, it said.
