After multiple failed attempts by the company Trans Tasman Resources Ltd (TTRL) to get consent for seabed mining off the Taranaki Coast, TTRL are attempting to get consent for seabed mining off the Taranaki Coast once more, this time through the Fast-Track Bill.  

The company TTRL first applied for consent in 2013 and in 2014 and were declined by Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). They reapplied in 2016 and were approved but were appealed and referred back to the EPA in 2023. They were set for a hearing in March 2024, but TTRL pulled out days into the heading, before the EPA made a final decision, instead focussing on Fast-Track application. In doing so, TTRL cut short a judicial process that they had initiated in 2017 and which had been ongoing for seven years. It decided instead to sidestep the local community and local fishing industry by re-submitting under fast track. 

TTRL wants to mine offshore in depths of up to 20-42 m deep. The company wants to dig up to 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 35 years, dumping 45 million tonnes back onto the seabed.

It is the dumping back of the waste that differentiates seabed mining from sand mining, and it has a much bigger impact on the benthic and marine environment.

This would be a highly experimental operation that has not been carried out anywhere else on the planet.

A revised application area in 2024 is 878 square kms, over ten times the original 66 square km application. 

Seabed mining is a new activity that is still experimental at a national and global level.

The consequences of this style of resource extraction are unknown. It can be compared to stripping the seafloor of its forests without knowing the importance of these forests to the survival of our ocean.

It has been banned in several states in Australia.

The area proposed for undertaking iron ore extraction and processing operations is in a total application area of 878 square kilometres, located between 22 and 36 kilometres (12 and 19 nautical miles) offshore in the South Taranaki Bight.

The impact zone of this is not fully known. But according to TTRL’s own Impact Assessment Report, the sediment generated by the iron ore mining could reach along the entire coastline from Taranaki to Whanganui.

According to TTR’s Impact Assessment Report, local Iwi also identified the following potential negative effects:

• on the mauri of Tangaroa including pollution from the project;

• impact on customary and commercial fishing;

• sediment plume and increased sedimentation;

• effects on organisms in the Project area due to extraction and the rate of recolonisation;

• impact on fisheries and life in the sea including tuna (eel) and whitebait;

• long term environmental sustainability of the coastal area;

• the risk that modelling research could be wrong;

• coastal wāhi tapu;

• and the effects of an unplanned event such as an oil spill on the environment.

TTRL is a company 100% owned by an Australian firm. Proceeds of this industry will not remain within the NZ economy, and public/crown proceeds are limited to 5% (which is around $6 million in royalties, annually).

The majority of the heavy materials extracted will be exported to China to support the metal industry there. Therefore, there is expected to be little to no secondary industry created in New Zealand.  

Job creation (estimated by the project in 2017) is limited to around 310 jobs based in NZ, however, the positions created are predominantly specialised and require significant training and education. This reliance on a skilled workforce may exclude a substantial segment of the local population, limiting access to employment opportunities, and requiring that people move into the area to fill the roles rather than up-skilling the existing population.  

This is an extractive industry that seeks to transfer much of the wealth generated from the product to overseas investors.

The proposal poses a direct threat to the local fishing industry, a vital economic sector for the coastal communities.

Disruption of fish populations and habitats due to industrial activities could lead to reduced catches, impacting the livelihoods of fishermen and related businesses. The fishing industry has been a strong submitter against the proposal since its inception and have spent hundreds of thousands in the submission process to date opposing the application. 

Under the fast track process this long term engagement by the fishing industry is side-stepped and these interests can be ignored. 

The Taranaki and Manawatū regions carry the greatest burden in terms of effects.