Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd. is commenting on the Court of Appeal decision released on April 3 relating to the Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) proposal to recover iron sands offshore the west coast of the North Island of New Zealand.
While the TTR appeal was disallowed, the decision provides useful guidance to Chatham Rock and to any other party that may propose to recover valuable resources from the seabed within New Zealand’s EEZ.
This is because the evolving case law (of which this decision is part) is providing more certainty about how the EEZ Act will be interpreted and will help guide Chatham Rock to frame an application that can meet the rigorous environmental impact tests that its phosphate recovery process will be subjected to.
The decision is in no way a showstopper for Chatham Rock, or indeed for the seabed mining industry in New Zealand, regardless of whether or not it is appealed by Trans-Tasman Resources. Rather, it provides direct guidance on the tests which must be applied to the project design and resulting impacts. Chatham Rock will be working closely with its engineering partners to ensure the project design can meet these rigorous tests.
In conjunction with the guidance herein on the impact tests applied to the extraction process, Chatham Rock will reiterate in its application that the use of Chatham Rise-sourced rock phosphate has a number of positive environmental, ethical, security of supply and food safety outcomes, including:
Much lower runoff into waterways when applied as a direct application fertilizer and a resultant significantly healthier soil profile;
Much lower carbon footprint than imported rock phosphate;A homegrown product, right on the company’s doorstep and not imported from a disputed territory on the other side of the world;Very low cadmium levels, important as high cadmium levels can cause cancer.
- Much lower runoff into waterways when applied as a direct application fertilizer and a resultant significantly healthier soil profile;
- Much lower carbon footprint than imported rock phosphate;
- A homegrown product, right on the company’s doorstep and not imported from a disputed territory on the other side of the world;
- Very low cadmium levels, important as high cadmium levels can cause cancer.
The company is confident that its phosphate recovery process will have minimal, localized and temporary impacts on a tiny fraction of the Chatham Rise seabed, and these environmental impacts will be more than offset by the environmental, ethical, security of supply and food safety benefits listed herein.
The project, which already has a granted mining permit, will also generate significant economic benefits while paying tens of millions of dollars in Crown royalties, income tax and port charges.
Chatham Rock Phosphate is a local company owned by hundreds of moms and dads who have supported this company for more than a decade as they view it as a healthy, ethical and profitable project that will benefit New Zealand and all New Zealanders.
