Manuka Resources
Owner of the Taranaki offshore iron sands project
ASX: MKRNZX: MKRFounded 2016
Manuka Resources Limited owns Trans-Tasman Resources, which holds the permits over the Taranaki vanadium-titanium-magnetite iron sands deposit in New Zealand’s South Taranaki Bight. It has no consent to mine it. An expert panel proposed to decline the application in February 2026, and Trans-Tasman Resources withdrew it two weeks later rather than take a final decision. The company’s producing assets are a gold and silver operation in New South Wales.
News and articles
Daily closes over the past year, to October 15, 2026.
Overview
- Incorporated in Australia on April 20, 2016, and listed on the ASX on July 14, 2020. A secondary listing on the NZX Main Board followed on September 29, 2025, the company saying ~30% of its shares are held in New Zealand.
- It acquired 100% of Trans-Tasman Resources on November 11, 2022, for 176,938,295 shares. There is no minority and no earn-out.
- The Taranaki deposit is large: 3.2 billion tonnes grading 10.17% iron oxide, 1.03% titanium dioxide and 0.05% vanadium pentoxide, across a mining permit of 243 km² and an exploration permit of 635 km².
- The plan was to extract 50 million tonnes of seabed material a year with two crawlers feeding a processing vessel, ship out about 4.9 million tonnes of concentrate, and return roughly 45 million tonnes of de-ored sediment to the seabed.
- Consent has been refused or abandoned at every attempt since 2013. A 2017 grant was overturned through the courts to the Supreme Court in 2021, a reconsideration was withdrawn in March 2024, and the fast-track application was withdrawn in February 2026.
- The permits are retained. The withdrawal ended the consent application, not the mining permit, and the government’s register records the project as withdrawn with the applicant able to reapply.
- The company has since pivoted to New South Wales. Care and maintenance at Wonawinta ended on March 9, 2026, and gold production restarted on August 21, 2026, processing ore trucked from Mt Boppy.
- Money is tight. Its audited accounts show A$7.8 million of cash against borrowings carried at A$46.3 million at June 30, 2026, and a net current asset deficiency of A$6.1 million. The auditor flagged a material uncertainty over its ability to continue as a going concern. An A$14.5 million placement followed in September 2026 to complete the silver circuit.
- Its auditor issued a qualified conclusion on the December 2025 half year, unable to determine the recoverable amount of A$51.4 million of exploration, development and plant assets for which impairment indicators had been identified. RSM qualified its opinion on the full-year accounts to June 30, 2026, on the same ground, covering A$38.6 million of exploration and evaluation assets and A$35.8 million of property, plant and equipment.
The Taranaki iron sands project
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Owner | Trans-Tasman Resources Limited, a New Zealand company, 100% owned since November 11, 2022 |
| Location | South Taranaki Bight, off the west coast of the North Island, 22 km to 36 km offshore in 20 to 50 metres of water |
| Mining permit | MMP55581, granted 2014, 243 km² after an extension of area approved on July 11, 2024, that enlarged it from 65.76 km² |
| Exploration permit | MEP54068, 635 km², inside the 12 nautical mile limit and so under different legislation. A four-year term extension was granted on July 11, 2024. |
| Resource | 3,157 Mt at 10.17% Fe₂O₃, 1.03% TiO₂ and 0.05% V₂O₅, reported in March 2023. Of that, 1,881 Mt sits inside the mining permit and 1,275 Mt inside the exploration permit. |
| Product | A single concentrate of ~57% iron, 8.4% titanium dioxide and 0.50% vanadium pentoxide. Both vanadium and titanium are on New Zealand’s critical minerals list. |
| Method as planned | Two seabed crawlers, one working and one on standby, cutting about 5 metres deep and pumping 8,000 tonnes an hour to a processing vessel. Separation is wet, using seawater. Concentrate transfers to a floating storage vessel for tranship to bulk carriers. |
| Scale as planned | 50 Mt of seabed material extracted a year, 4.9 Mt of concentrate produced, and about 45 Mt of de-ored sediment returned to the seabed behind the vessel. |
| Economics as last published | A pre-feasibility study of March 2025 put capital cost at US$602 million, operating cost at US$27.20 a tonne of concentrate, average annual EBITDA at US$312 million over 20 years, and post-tax net present value at US$1.26 billion at a 10% discount rate. No bankable feasibility study was started. |
| Consent status | None. The application was withdrawn on February 19, 2026, and no final decision was ever issued. The government register records the project as withdrawn, with the applicant able to reapply. |
| Carrying value | Segment assets of A$26.6 million for the New Zealand exploration segment at June 30, 2026, the same as a year earlier, with no impairment recorded after the withdrawal. The auditor qualified its opinion on the group’s exploration and evaluation assets. |
How the consent application ended
- November 2013: the first marine consent application is made and is declined.
- 2017: a second application is granted by a decision-making committee. The grant is challenged through the High Court and the Court of Appeal.
- September 2021: the Supreme Court finds errors of law and refers the consents back for reconsideration.
- March 2024: with reconsideration hearings under way, Trans-Tasman Resources withdraws that application in anticipation of a new fast-track regime.
- December 23, 2024: the Fast-track Approvals Act becomes law, and the project is listed in a schedule that refers it straight to an expert panel.
- April 15, 2025: a substantive application is lodged. A five-member panel chaired by Kit Toogood KC is appointed on August 25, 2025, with a decision due by March 18, 2026.
- February 4, 2026: the panel issues a 436-page draft decision proposing to decline. It accepts the project has significant regional benefits, but is not satisfied that conditions could control the sediment plume or underwater noise, finds material harm likely to Maui dolphins and to rare seabed habitats, rejects adaptive management, and concludes the adverse effects are out of proportion to the benefits. It also finds a ground on which approval must be declined outright, over Treaty settlement obligations.
- February 19, 2026: given the chance to respond with modified conditions or to withdraw, Trans-Tasman Resources withdraws the application. No final decision was ever issued.
- The company made no standalone announcement of the withdrawal. It first appeared in the half-year accounts a month later, and then in the March 2026 quarterly.
- As at September 30, 2026, there has been no appeal, judicial review, reconsideration or fresh application. The annual report of that date says Trans-Tasman Resources keeps the right to reapply under the fast-track regime as a listed Schedule 2 project, and that the company is assessing its options while its capital and management attention stay on New South Wales. Its June 2026 quarterly notes the environmental regulator is pursuing cost recovery claims against it for the panel hearing.
The company’s own website still describes the project as in the fast-track approval process, which has not been true since February 2026. Its March 2026 investor presentation does not mention Taranaki at all.
The New South Wales operations
| Project | What it is | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Wonawinta | A silver deposit about 90 km south of Cobar, and the group’s 1.0 million tonne a year processing plant. Resource of 38.3 Mt at 41.3 g/t silver, with a probable reserve of 7.9 Mt at 50.4 g/t raised 28% in July 2026. | Operating. Care and maintenance ended March 9, 2026, and gold production restarted on August 21, 2026. The annual report of September 30, 2026, targets the start of silver production for December 2026 or January 2027, once new crushing and de-sliming circuits are commissioned. |
| Mt Boppy | A gold deposit about 45 km east of Cobar, with a resource of 4.3 Mt at 1.19 g/t gold. | The ore source rather than a standalone mine. More than 50,000 tonnes at about 1.1 g/t has been hauled to Wonawinta since April 2026. |
| Pipeline Ridge | An early stage gold prospect about 28 km south of Mt Boppy. No resource, only a conceptual exploration target. | 3,133 metres of drilling completed in the June 2026 quarter, with a maiden resource targeted during 2026. |
Presentations
PDF
Current document. The New South Wales restart, the cash and debt position, and the company’s account of where Taranaki now stands.
PDF
The mining method, the production plan and the economics, as last published before the application was withdrawn.
PDF
The last deck to cover the Taranaki project substantially, issued three days before the draft decision.
The decision documents and accounts (5 documents)
Ownership
The holder list below is from the annual report, current at September 28, 2026, when 1,798,732,725 shares were on issue. The register has grown by ~69% since September 29, 2025, through placements, including 207,142,857 shares issued on September 13, 2026.
| Holder | Shares | Percent | As reported in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rosenberg Group | 211,792,117 | 11.8 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Citicorp Nominees Pty Limited | 168,447,999 | 9.4 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Tennant Metals South Africa Pty Ltd | 124,801,986 | 6.9 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| BNP Paribas Nominees Pty Ltd, IB AU Noms Retail client | 63,371,065 | 3.5 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Minvest Securities (New Zealand) Limited | 49,375,887 | 2.7 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Lazarus Securities Pty Ltd, client account | 46,586,470 | 2.6 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Sharesies Australia Nominee Pty Limited | 36,845,292 | 2.0 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Soothgrove Pty Ltd | 35,982,815 | 2.0 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| HSBC Custody Nominees (Australia) Limited | 32,419,160 | 1.8 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| BNP Paribas Nominees Pty Ltd | 27,423,722 | 1.5 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Top 20 holders in total | 966,651,830 | 53.7 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026 |
| Shares outstanding at September 28, 2026 | 1,798,732,725 | 100 | Annual report 2026 |
Group ownership
| Group | Shares | Percent | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Substantial holders, being the three above 5% | 505,042,102 | 28.1 | Annual report 2026, at September 28, 2026, summed and computed |
| Directors and their associates, being Dennis Karp, Alan Eggers and John Seton | 169,245,887 | 9.4 | Annual report 2026 directors’ report, at September 30, 2026, summed and computed |
Options and warrants over 150,656,343 shares were outstanding at June 30, 2026, alongside 3,650,000 convertible notes. The company’s senior lender holds 44,656,343 of the warrants. The same options and warrants were still on issue at September 28, 2026.
Document archive
Manuka reports to the ASX and, as a foreign exempt issuer, to the NZX. Neither publishes a filing index this site can mirror. The documents that carry the Taranaki story are hosted here and linked above: the pre-feasibility study, the expert panel’s draft decision, the notice of withdrawal, the accounts and the quarterly reports.