On Thursday Minister Jones launched his new pro-mining strategy in a rural village that was the actual birthplace of the Labour Party.
“I deliberately chose to come to Blackball because we need to re-legitimise [and] reinvigorate mining,” the former Labour MP said.
“It’s been abandoned by the Labour Party. They are now a metropolitan, identity-driven party that feels embarrassed about those historic roots.”
There’s no doubt of Jones’ theatrical precision. In political terms he is seeking to ensure Labour never ever gets another regional electoral seat ever again.
“We need to use the endowments that we’ve been given, we need to profit from them and stop the catastrophisation that every time you put a shovel, a machine, a digger in the ground – you’re destroying the sacredness of earth mother.”
I’ve written before about how hard an actual ‘just transition’ would be for Blackball.
What Minister Jones actually launched was a Draft Minerals Strategy for New Zealand to 2040. It’s not a huge industry in New Zealand employing about 5,000 directly and generating about $1 billion in exports.
Jones is quite fortunate that there are some large mining prospects that are already getting closer to production. Santana Pty has already released an estimate to the Australian Stock Exchange that its proposed new gold mine in Tarras has about $4b in gold for extraction.
With 18 months of permitting and pre-construction, it is likely that this massive strike will be a producing mine within this parliamentary term that will produce political gold for Jones.
About 40 minutes up the road from Blackball is Reefton, and that has been assayed as having a seriously massive deposit of Antinomy.
Reefton through the sustained investment of one main developer has really turned itself around. A strike of this scale will strengthen it for decades to come.
We don’t have to be reminded that the economic and social history of major parts of New Zealand would not exist without extractive mining, including Dunedin, most of the West Coast, most of central Otago including the boom towns of Queenstown and Wanaka, also Thames, Paeroa, and Waihi and many more. It’s still strong in our imagination as The Luminaries showed so clearly. There’s also a whole heap of New Zealand ghost towns from dead coal mining around Huntly and Meremere, and those barely clinging to existence in Ohai and Nighcaps and Kaitangata.
Mining and petroleum is one of our highest productivity sectors. Way back in 2011 it was calculated at a figure of $330 per hour worked addition to GDP, making it our highest productivity sector on that metric.
On the other hand there’s the Pike River Memorial, dedicated to the 29 miners who were killed in a single mining incident very close to Blackball itself. It is also not for anyone except the super-rich to try at any scale. Todd Energy have poured in over a hundred million dollars into dry spudded wells in Taranaki: zip return.
But a Class A miner in New Zealand can easily command $150,000, and are always in hot demand for mines in Australia. A dozen of those salaries in a town like Westport or Reefton would do at least as much social and economic good as a new backpackers dedicated to ferrying hikers to the Paparoa Track. Get a few mines going and we’d need a strong School of Mines again, generating our own pipeline for skilled trades earning very, very big.
We don’t have the refineries that could make higher value minerals our of raw ore – other than the old Glenbrook mill (which no longer takes ironsand), and Tiwai Point (which doesn’t use mined product from New Zealand at all). But if there were sufficient sustained development, it might become worth it again as it has before.
The previous Labour-Green government were not supportive of mining. Late in 2023 they stopped any requirement for the state to promote mineral extraction. They passed the Crown Minerals (Petroleum) Amendment Act 2018 which banned al new oil and gas exploration in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. Three onshore exploration permits were granted, with just one going forward to a petroleum mining permit.
The real test for Jones and this government will be if they propose mining on conservation land.
New Zealanders have consistently marched against such a move in their tens of thousands, including myself, and I would happily do it again.
I suspect Jones has found a lucky streak of timing, and he will continue the march toward re-investing in regions that he started with the Provincial Growth Fund. His strategy is likely to play a lot better in the South island than the north.
As seen in the hikoi to parliament two weeks ago, a fast tracked mine would be vigorously opposed by Maori on the streets.
If he tried that Blackball speech in Mangonui or Kerikeri his own iwi would be out there telling him how they felt. Same in Taranaki against seabed mining. Who knows maybe the Puhipuhi gold prospect north of Whengarei will get back into frame again.
But for the South Island, on the assumption that he leaves the DoC estate alone, Shane Jones appears to be on a winner. Just maybe Shane Jones is partially right.
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