The Australian mining giant says it surveyed the 647 people who expressed interest in working for it, and much of the workforce it would need could already be living in the area..
‘‘Central Otago has spent years watching its young people leave for Auckland or Australia.
‘‘These results suggest that trend could reverse... ,’’ it said after recently surveying those who last year expressed interest in working at the mine.
The proposed mine in the Bendigo-Ophir hills awaits a decision on its fast-track consent application amid a heated protest environment.
In its statement released proactively yesterday, Santana said the mine would create more than 860 jobs over 14 years of peak production.
The company has previously said about 250 to 375 of the jobs would be working directly for the company and other jobs would be created locally for associated businesses.
There have been public concerns that mine workers would come from outside the district, increasing pressure on already stretched temporary accommodation, housing, roads and services.
Santana said the ‘‘standout result’’ of its survey was that more than half of the 647 people who expressed interest in a job already lived locally and more than two-thirds of them had accommodation within an hour of the mine site.
Hundreds had the professional skills and mining experience the company would need and the 176 people new to the industry were described as ‘‘a pipeline of local talent ready to be trained’’.
Some had experience in construction and mining operations and processing and 94% said they would use company-provided buses to get to work.
This suggested ‘‘the mine’s daily rhythm will sit lightly on the roads and towns around it’’, the statement said.
Santana people and culture manager Vicki Blakeborough said it ‘‘settled two questions at once, housing pressure and workforce model’’.
‘‘This is a residential mine. There is no FIFO [fly-in, fly-out] here.’’
