Urgent public meetings planned for Dunedin and Wānaka as concern over fast-tracked goldmine swells

As community concern about the planned fast-tracked open-pit gold mine in Central Otago grows, two urgent public meetings have been organised in Dunedin and Wānaka next week. Organisers have confirmed that there is already strong interest in both meetings.

The meetings, in Dunedin on Tuesday 17 June and in Wānaka on Thursday 19 June, will include a panel of expert speakers to lay out the known facts about the fast-tracked gold mine, take audience questions and discuss what the community can do. The panelist line up is being announced later this week.

Suze Keith, chair of Sustainable Tarras Inc., says that there is a broad spectrum of issues people are very concerned about. “From the information released so far, there are numerous very worrying issues” she said. “These include the size and scale of the mine right in the heart of an Outstanding Natural Landscape, the massive tailings dam which will hold 10,000 olympic swimming pools of toxic waste, and the extensive use and storage of large quantities of cyanide just upstream of the Clutha River. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Santana Minerals, an Australian company, is preparing its full fast-track application to file in June this year, and aims to “strip the landcover by 2026.” Despite numerous requests for details and meetings, Santana is not being open and transparent with concerned locals. “They’re not providing us information we’re reasonably asking for, and which we know they have got.”

She said that local communities are just coming to grips with the scale of the mine. “Even the cyanide-leaching processing plant will be 130m wide and a kilometer long. The mine will involve an estimated 200 million tonnes of waste rock and 13 million tons of toxic tailings. These numbers, and the likely impacts and risks, are mind-boggling.”

The mine is also getting attention from people who are concerned that the fast-track process is being used inappropriately for a project which is not about public infrastructure or community benefit, but rather is solely about extraction of resources and maximising shareholder profits, most of which will go offshore. This mine would become the largest single earthworks in Otago since the Clyde Dam could be approved without the general public having any right of input into the proposal.

People interested in attending meetings in Dunedin or Wānaka can register to find out more and secure a seat at www.bit.ly/notmine2025. The meetings are free to attend, but numbers are limited.