Key points
- Wood Mackenzie developed the draft list as part of New Zealand’s Draft Minerals Strategy, which includes phosphate rock and rare-earth minerals.
- The draft list identifies 35 minerals deemed essential to New Zealand’s economy and in demand by its international partners.
- Chatham Rock Phosphate holds a granted mining permit over an 820-square-kilometre area on the Chatham Rise with an independently verified resource of 23.4 million tonnes of rock phosphate.
- The company says an economically viable method to recover the rare earths present has not yet been established.
Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd. has noted that phosphate rock and rare-earth minerals have been included in a just-released list of minerals deemed critical to New Zealand.
The draft list has been developed by Wood Mackenzie and is one of the key actions identified in the New Zealand Draft Minerals Strategy.
A critical mineral is defined as:
Essential to New Zealand’s economy, national security and technology needs, including renewable energy technologies and components to support its transition to a low-emissions future
in demand by New Zealand’s international partners.
- Essential to New Zealand’s economy, national security and technology needs, including renewable energy technologies and components to support its transition to a low-emissions future
in demand by New Zealand’s international partners.
The draft list identifies 35 minerals that are essential to New Zealand’s economic functions, are in demand by its international partners, and face high risks to supply domestically and internationally.
Once finalized, the critical minerals list will contribute to New Zealand’s work on critical international supply chains and allow the Government to investigate specific actions for securing better access to the minerals deemed critical. This could include strategic pathways for development of specific minerals.
Chatham Rock holds a granted mining permit over an 820-square-kilometre area in the Chatham Rise that holds an independently verified rock phosphate resource of 23.4 million tonnes. For more information see the National Instrument 43-10 report on the company’s website.
Rare-earth minerals are also present in significant quantities but an economically viable method to recover them is yet to be established.
The company believes its prospects for gaining the necessary environmental consent for mining on the Chatham Rise is much enhanced by this development of a critical minerals list, as well as the related fast-track permitting process also now being established by the New Zealand government.
