A map showing the area that could be explored by Australian gold prospectors.
An Australian gold mining company is applying for consent to explore a large area of Northwest-Nelson conservation park land, but says it will only use hand-held tools in its exploration work.
Strategic Elements this week has been exploring 5559 hectares that contains the historic Aorangi gold mine bordering the Kahurangi National Park.
The company has been interested in the area for several years and in 2012 it gained a permit to study a 134 square kilometre area around the Golden Blocks goldfield.
It is currently seeking consent from the Department of Conservation to further explore a smaller area that includes the Aorangi Mine.
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Strategic Elements executive director Matthew Howard said it was just a "grass-roots exploration" at this stage that would be spread over a few years.
"There are no vehicles, heavy machinery, bulldozers or drill rigs allowed anywhere near the permit. No vehicles are used other than helicopters to drop the team in," he said.
Alden Williams
Forest and Bird Chief Executive Kevin Hague.
"It's a question of just going in there and having a look. This exploration phase will last for at least five years and during that time we will just be exploring and analysing the data."
He said geologically, the area it was prospecting was a very difficult area.
"It's taking us a lot of time to understand – it's a complicated setting, because it was a very rich gold field but no one really understands why."
It was working very closely with the Department of Conservation, he said.
DOC Golden Bay operations manager Andrew Lamason said it had received a "minimum impact activity" consent application from Strategic Elements.
Strategic Elements need the consent to access conservation land managed by DOC to carry out its research.
"Staff visited the area yesterday with Strategic Elements representatives as part of our consideration of the consent application," Lamason said.
Under the Crown Minerals Act, a minimum impact activity consent can only involve land and aerial surveying to study and sample the surface rocks by hand.
Howard said it was too early to say what mining methods it might use, should it find gold and decide to mine the area.
"We don't have a mine plan yet – we might find there's nothing there. There obviously was historically."
In 2014, the company stumbled on thousands of pages of dusty historical records from Wellington and London archives, Howard said.
They revealed high grade gold remaining in the Aorangi Mine.
He said the area was rich in history but has had little or no exploration since.
"We've learnt a lot about the history of the area and the activities they undertook. They would mine with candles on their hats. They had little camp towns set up in the bush. Not really any remnants left though, and we're sort-of just stepping into it bit-by-bit."
Strategic Element's website says that after the Aorangi mine was closed in 1913, a local company, Golden Blocks Mines attempted to re-open it in 1932 after discovering 300m of completed underground development was left unmined.
Golden Blocks Mines regional geochemical sampling had shown multiple zones of high grade gold existed, Strategic Element's website said.
Forest and Bird Chief Executive Kevin Hague said mineral exploration could be "very damaging" to the environment.
He said it often involved the destruction of native habitat and top soils with heavy machinery such as bulldozers and drill rigs.
Mining on conservation land doesn't have to meet the same environmental test as other commercial activities, which is very convenient for the mining industry, he said.
"If it did have to, there's no chance they'd be allowed in this area."
Hague said North-West Nelson Conservation Park was specially protected conservation land.
"This application, and the government's entertainment of it, is yet another example of DOC being strong-armed into acting against the conservation interests of the environment and the people of New Zealand."
- Stuff.co.nz
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