Besieged mining firm withdraws fast-track bid to plough Taranaki seabed

2026-02-19 - 03:57

Trans-Tasman Resources has officially withdrawn its fast-track application for a Taranaki seabed mine. The company disagreed with the findings of the expert panel in charge of its application, which found “no amount of conceivable change” to consent conditions could account for the issues it identified. The move marked the third rejection for the project, with opponents hoping it would be the final nail in the coffin. On February 18, Trans-Tasman Resources sent a memo to the fast-track panel in response to the draft decision published weeks earlier. It was the applicant’s chance to respond to concerns with potential changes to the consent conditions, but it chose not to present any. Instead, the company rejected the panel’s findings and wrote it did not accept that such issues existed. It also wrote it was disappointed that the panel had not indicated the scope of the issues it had found before issuing the draft decision. If it had done so, Trans-Tasman Resources argued it would have had time to correct misunderstandings. The next day, chief executive Alan Eggers wrote to the fast-track panel with a notice of withdrawal. Jones questions panel’s reasoning Resources Minister Shane Jones was surprised by the move, but said after such an elongated process he wasn’t sure if anything surprised him anymore. Jones said the decision to withdraw left the door open for a future application, before a different panel. The panel in this case drew some of the minister’s scrutiny. “Some of the panel’s findings are a puzzle,” said Jones. He specifically noted an identified threat to Maori fishing treaty interests, which – as former chairman of the Maori Fisheries Commission – he did not think existed in that part of the ocean. Jones told Newsroom he would not make any immediate assessment, and expected to receive a full briefing on how the panel’s decision was made. From that point, he would start to make statements – probably during the course of the election. Jones has made mining a centrepoint of his campaign, and saw the seabed mine as a major boon for Taranaki, which he saw as being in an economic rut. Local opponents ready for another fight Cindy Baxter, chairperson of Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, has been opposing the seabed mine since 2013. She told Newsroom local opposition was ready for the long haul, and would protest any future efforts the company made to progress the mine. “We are not going to give up – ever.” Baxter predicted the company would use the withdrawal as an opportunity to say the draft decision held no standing, and not count the fast-track process as a technical loss. The company would then be free to reapply under the updated fast-track legislation, which was amended in December to restrict which groups the expert panel could call in to give evidence. The changes would limit groups like Baxter’s – “pesky people”, in her words – from participating. Baxter called such a strategy “ridiculous”, and didn’t think it would work. She said the company’s track record proved how inappropriate the project was, and accused the applicant of trying to get the project consented via political means and legislative change rather than shoring up their “really dodgy application”. ‘Lost opportunity’ Trans-Tasman Resources provided only a cursory response to the draft decision released by the expert panel that was considering its application to harvest iron sands off the coast of Taranaki, before advising the fast-track panel it was withdrawing. “We have decided to withdraw our application under the Fast-track Approvals Act while we consider our future options,” says executive chairman Alan Eggers. “The decision reflects our disappointment by the draft decision to decline the project and the fact we strongly disagree with most of its assessments. “The truth is New Zealanders should feel disappointed, as a significant economic boost that would have delivered a new high tech export industry, jobs and millions in annual spending is being denied by this expert panel.” Mr Eggers says the company has made no decision on what it may do next and will take some time to consider its options. TTR had sought approvals to mine the seabed of vanadium-rich iron sands in waters ranging from 20m to 50m deep and up to 36km out to sea in the South Taranaki Bight. The project would have delivered significant regional and national benefits, including more than 300 direct jobs in the Taranaki region and Whanganui District, and more than 1,100 high value jobs across New Zealand. It was expected to deliver export earnings of $854 million and spend $238 million annually, most of it in the Taranaki region. Mr Eggers says the Fast-track process has been unfair, as TTR was given no opportunity to respond to the panel’s concerns on a wide range of issues. “We believe our application and proposed conditions addressed all the issues the panel raised and the project should be granted approvals under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024. “Our application was of the highest quality, with the most up-to-date and best available information.” He says the process has also been costly, with TTR having little oversight on spending incurred by the EPA in the process. “We have been invoiced more than $1.5 million to date by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) and it’s unclear to us what those funds have been spent on. While we accept the process is cost-recovery, we still expect the funds to be spent wisely and to know what we have paid for. “It appears that New Zealand is risk averse, indifferent to mineral resource investment, focused on process, and has lost sight of opportunity and innovation,” Mr Eggers says. He says the application’s withdrawal is a blow to the government’s negotiations with the United States to secure a critical minerals deal and also to the government’s own Minerals Strategy to double mineral exports to $3 billion by 2035.