Today, Rob van der Mark of Sustainable Tarras made a submission to the full council meeting of CODC, to update councillors about the community’s significant concerns around the fast-track mine proposal. Here is Rob’s submission in full …
My name is Rob van der Mark, I am a winegrower in Bendigo, our vineyard being some 10km from the proposed mine that Australian company Santana minerals is proposing in the Dunstan Ranges. I am also a committee member of Sustainable Tarras.
I’d like to give council an update on some recent developments and raise concerns on behalf of a large number of people in the local Bendigo Tarras community.
Santana Minerals is a tiny new company that plans to dig 4 open pits, the largest being 1km wide and 300m deep, an industrial processing plant 1km long consuming 2000kg of cyanide a day to leach the gold from the rock, a waste rock dump that will take over 200 million tons of rock, and a 2 km long tailings dam that will hold a slurry of arsenic and heavy metals in perpetuity, all of this in the steep Shepherds Creek valley that drains into the Lindis and Clutha Mata Au rivers and feeds our local aquifer system.
For several years now Santana has operated an industrial site in a rural resource area where they process the many drill samples and coordinate work for their drilling contractors. They have done so without ever applying for resource consent and in clear breach of the district plan. Complaints from neighbours have been ignored by the company.
In the past few months Santana has applied for two resource consents that are incomplete and further speak of the cavalier nature by which the company goes about its business. The latest one asks council staff to approve plans for the mine’s administrative offices, storage and repair sheds, and an elaborate caravan park for its workforce. This application breaches the district plan in many areas, grossly underestimates many effects, and will significantly affect local residents.
The company has asked council for a non notified consent for these extensive works that will leave a major impact on the valley and the locally affected community.
Despite regular dialogue we have had with Santana, the company refuses to release its many completed expert reports that it will submit under the Fast Track approvals Act process. We understand council has received some of these reports, and we ask council to make these available to the public promptly. The community remains largely unaware of the detailed impacts of this project.
It is outrageous that an Australian company can come into our district, refuse to engage in any meaningful detailed dialogue about its plans with the affected community, have a cavalier approach to our district plan and resource consenting processes, and hide behind a Fast Track process which will struggle to evaluate its proposals in the short time allowed.
There is no social licence for this project in the local community. There is nothing that even resembles consultation with the local community. We kindly ask that you evaluate Santana’s plans carefully where they apply to you, and remain highly vigilant about the effects this mine will cause. We ask that you listen carefully to those who have worked in these large mines and are honest about their effects on the local environment and local communities. And we also ask that you share any information fully and rapidly with the community.
If this mine is approved it will likely be the first of many in Central Otago. We know the gold is there. But its in hard rock and getting to it will change the landscape, our existing industries, and what we stand for in Central Otago forever.
It’s a one way road with no going back.
Thank you for your attention.
[Photo credit: Full CODC Meeting 2023, The Central App]
Sustainable Tarras 