Key points
- The Fast-Track Approvals Bill list, announced Sunday, Oct. 6, includes 19 mining and quarrying projects, among them Trans-Tasman Resources’ seabed vanadium iron sands project.
- Chatham Rock Phosphate has held a granted seabed mining permit since 2013.
- Chatham applied for the bill’s second-ranked Schedule 2 category but was not funded to resubmit, effectively deprioritizing itself off the list.
- The company expects its environmental permit reapplication to be funded by local investors or cashflow from its Queensland operations, which received a mining permit last week, and rock phosphate was recently added to the critical minerals list.
Chatham Rock Phosphate Ltd. is very pleased that operating in the resources sector in New Zealand just got a whole lot easier.
Nineteen mining and quarrying projects will be included in the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, the government announced on Sunday, Oct. 6. These include the Trans-Tasman Resources seabed vanadium iron sands project.
Chatham congratulates the coalition government on this giant leap forward and as a fellow seabed mining company (holding a granted mining permit since 2013) considers the inclusion of Trans-Tasman Resources in the fast-track list particularly significant.
International investors will welcome this milestone as it signals a reversal of the permitting risk that has in recent years made New Zealand an increasingly unpopular investment destination.
Context
It is important to note that being on the list is not an automatic approval of a project. Those listed must make an application to the Environmental Protection Authority and be assessed under the bill once it is passed.
These are not the only projects that may be able to go through the fast-track process. Once the bill is enacted later this year, anyone can apply.
This includes Chatham Rock Phosphate, which applied to be on the second-ranked category of the Schedule 2 in the bill, as we were not yet funded to resubmit an application. By doing so Chatham effectively deprioritized itself and did not make the list.
New Zealand MBIE officials have advised the company that not being listed in Schedule 2 is not a commentary on the merits of the project, or any future indication on how the project would be assessed if we were to make a future application under the bill once enacted.
Looking ahead
The company expects its reapplication for an environmental permit to be financed either by a consortium of local investors or by operating cashflows from the Queensland mining operations, the first of which was granted a mining permit last week.
As the only local source of rock phosphate, which was recently added to the critical minerals list, the company is hopeful that its reapplication for an environmental permit will be successful.
