Alison Paul: Oceana Gold Senior Vice President praises Fast Track programme

The government is looking to sell New Zealand's mineral resources on the Global stage. 

Minister Shane Jones is heading to Australia and the US to promote investment and growth. 

Oceana Gold Senior Vice President Alison Paul told Mike Hosking that the Fast Track programme has been successful in getting mining operations to break ground. 

"We've got a project in that process that comes to a decision before Christmas, and for us it's been a good experience."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The next step in the Shane Jones crusade to get

(00:01):
this country mining again. He's across the Tasman. I think
he goes on to the States after that to promote
investment and growth. In a nutshell, he's looking to build
confidence in our mining. Second and Allison Paul's a senior
VP Legal and Public Affairs for Oceania Gold and is
with us.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Allison Mourning, good morning mate.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Is the industry fully cognizant both here and in Australia
of our government stance and what we want to achieve?

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Yes? In a nutshell, yes, This minister has been pretty
active and he's been at a range of conferences, including
attending a big conference in Canada earlier this year, very
well received.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Okay, So is the industry on board with what broadly
speaking he's keen on doing.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Yeah, it's fair to say it's a vibe across the
sector around the world, and in fact, other jurisdictions are
looking at what's happening in New Zealand with interest. I
think there's a huge interest in minerals everywhere.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Will people start digging here because the oil and gas
problem is Yes, they put a couple of hundred million
dollars up to get skin in the game. But I mean,
you've got the specter of an election next year, the
possibility of labor coming back, therefore killing it all.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
Is that a problem, isn't It isn't even the oil
and gas ban and I can't speak for them, but
that involved grandfathering or essentially retaining existing permits. So I
think the focus in the industry at the moment is
looking to get those permits in hand, and fast track
process is a huge part of that. So getting into

(01:31):
that process and seeing that take route and it's working,
I'd have to say it's a good process.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Oh good. So the fact so you speak well of
fast track it is successful and people are here and
they're starting to dig.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
That's right. We've got a project in that process that
comes to a decision before Christmas, and for us it's
been a good experience. I think they're going to get
where we need to get.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
How much of it's about gold and we all know
about the gold price at the moment versus other metals
that we may or may not know about that are
involved in data and AI and all that sort of stuf.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, it's all of that in New Zealand. We have
quite a small mining sector compared to something like Australia,
and gold and coal have been the big employers and
the big trainers of miners in New Zealand. We make
great miners here, but we need that sector to be
there and thriving for those other rare earth minerals and
the other important critical minerals to get a foothold. So

(02:28):
if we get it right the industry here.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Yeah, sure, if we get it right. How much potential
does the industry have here? Are we worth mining? Are
we a mining country?

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Absolutely? We're worst mining. We've Ocean and Gold's been here
for thirty five years successfully mining and we've got four mines,
but at the end of the day, two of them
are in New Zealand. So half our business is still
here in New Zealand. We've grown off the back of that.
So you can definitely mine successfully in New Zealand. You
need to make sure that you do the right thing

(02:58):
and that's very import order into New Zealand, as it
is to the miners who are active in the country.

Speaker 1 (03:04):
Good to talk to you, Alison. Appreciator Ellison Paul, who's
the Senior VP Legal and Public affairs at Oceania gob.
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