The company has already called for hearings originally scheduled for July this year to be postponed.
Now, in a fourth minute issued, commissioner Rob van Voorthuysen late last week said it was "highly likely" hearings postponed in July and due to be completed by December 2 would not go ahead as planned.
The company was supposed to have provided commissioners with its updated position by Thursday last week.
Instead, its lawyer, Pip Walker, used the September 11 deadline to again call for more time — until October 13.
After the commissioners postponed the hearings and granted the company more time to consider recommendations in councils’ assessment of anticipated adverse environmental effects, OceanaGold had been "assessing a variety of options for moving forward".
"As part of this process [OceanaGold] has been engaging with runāka about the issues they have raised, however [OceanaGold] needs further time to work through some of the matters identified by runāka," Ms Walker said.
"These include potential responses to interconnected matters that range outside of the ambit of mitigatory options arising under the Resource Management Act 1991, and raise complicated issues that will take some time to resolve."
Mr van Voorthuysen said while the hearing remained postponed, the hearings panel was asking the company to provide a "more realistic" timeframe for hearings when it updated its position next month.
In June, Otago Regional Council senior consents planner Shay McDonald recommended the consent application for OceanaGold’s proposed expansion at Macraes be "declined in full".
The expansion — known as the Macraes Phase 4 (MP4) Project — would result in actual and potential effects on surface water quality, aquatic ecology, natural inland and ephemeral wetlands, lizard habitat and a threatened invertebrate species of moth, Ms McDonald said.
These effects would be "significantly adverse" and could not be avoided, minimised, remedied, offset or compensated for.
In May, Kāti Huirapa Rūnaka ki Puketeraki, Te Rūnanga o Moeraki and Te Rūnaka o Ōtākou — submitting as Kā Rūnaka — said OceanaGold’s application to expand its Macraes mine did not adequately address "the magnitude, severity and ongoing impact" of the effects arising from their plans.
"Furthermore, the conclusions contained in the application regarding the effects arising from the application have been reached without an assessment of the cultural impacts of the project endorsed by Kā Rūnaka," the submission said.
"It is not possible for the applicant to conclude that the effects are of an acceptable level without cultural input into their assessment."
