A neighbour of a proposed Gibbston valley quarry says he was never notified by the applicant about the proposal and opposes it for environmental reasons.
The owners of the Victoria Flats property, Mark and India van der Wilt, told independent resource consent commissioners David Clark and Christine Kelly in Queenstown yesterday that opening the temporary mine would be a "dream come true" for their family.
The couple planned to partner Gold and Green Resources of Hokitika to extract coloured schist, gravel and gold from their freehold property for about five years.
The mining would be carried out in three stretches of the Kawarau River adjacent to Victoria Flats in the hope of excavating grey-black, green and reddish brown schist.
The schist would be drilled and blasted to produce large pieces similar to that at Gibbston and Millbrook quarries.
However, neighbour Tim Edney opposes the mining, saying he was not notified until he had sought notification from the council in February.
Although he supported his neighbour commercially, the adverse effects on the environment and landscape, as well as the visual and traffic effects, would be damaging, he said.
Mr van der Wilt said in his submission he had spoken to all neighbours, and most were "positive".
"Overall, I feel that our quarry is small scale and appropriately located."
The Wakatipu Trails Trust, the New Zealand Transport Agency, New Zealand Historic Places Trust, the Queenstown Lakes District Council and several smaller parties had all approved of the plans.
The Otago Regional Council had confirmed the proposal was a permitted activity.
The Ministry of Economic Development had issued the van der Wilts with a mining permit to quarry schist from the 21.04ha of land for five years, commencing in February last year.
Gold and Green Resources consulting geologist Charles Watson said on behalf of the applicant the van der Wilts had been in contact with Mr Edney since May 2011, when they first applied for resource consent.
He said they had met but the applicant had been "unable to agree to grant Mr Edney's demands".
The applicant said noise and effects on the environment and topography of the land would be minimal and fall within the requirements of the resource consent.
The proposed quarry would be seen from the Mt Rosa walking track, Waitiri Rd, but not from State Highway 6.
Existing development at Victoria Flats were the Victoria Flats landfill site, an off-road motorcycle track and an undeveloped whisky distillery which went into bankruptcy.
