West Coast leaders are starting to rally to fight a ban on all new mining on conservation land, a move they fear will add to seven years of mass job losses.
On Wednesday evening, new Conservation Minister Eugenie Sage announced the ruling, catching many on the West Coast off-guard.
Grey District Mayor Tony Kokshoorn was this morning writing to his fellow mayors.
"We need to take stock of the situation, and sit down with Eugenie Sage and (Prime Minister) Jacinda Ardern, if we can," Mr Kokshoorn said.
Although coalmining activity had retrenched, goldmining was still "huge" on the West Coast, and the proposed minerals institute would be looking at mining rare earth minerals -- many of which were on the conservation estate, he said.
The West Coast currently has 50 alluvial goldmines that employ 175 staff. Five domestic coalmines employ 110 staff directly and 598 jobs are tied to Stockton, including contractors.
The minister's office yesterday revealed there are 17 current mining concessions on conservation land.
West Coast Commercial Goldminers' Association spokesman John Wood said there had been a huge backlog of permits under the National government and if they had been granted, miners would have been better placed to ride out the new policy.
Mr Wood said mining often did better under Labour governments.
"As Jim Anderton once said to me, 'jobs in mining are skilled and high paying in rural areas'. Making beds aren't."
Opposition leader Bill English said yesterday the Government needed to make sure the mining ban "doesn't have a disproportionate impact on job prospects, say on the West Coast where there has always been a pipeline of propositions for mining on lower value conservation land".
West Coast Regional Council chief executive Mike Meehan asked what would happen to stewardship land on the West Coast.
DOC has been working through a project to divest itself of areas of stewardship land and give better protection to higher value land.
"I don't think anyone would have a problem with really high value conservation land being protected," Mr Meehan said.
"In the conservation estate, there's a raft of land that's very low conservation value. It should be looked at for disposal."
Mr Meehan said he also questioned what would happen to authorised operations not currently mining -- "are they value-less?"
The minister's office told the Greymouth Star yesterday 50 access arrangements approved on the conservation estate but not currently actively operating.
Some mine sites are in care and maintenance, including rehabilitation of the site.
The 17 Coast concessions generate about $67,230 in fees for DOC each year.
The Westport News reported Ms Sage saying that applications currently under way, such as the Stevenson Mining application for Te Kuha near Westport, would be decided within the existing law.
