Toby Adams: Hauraki District mayor on the new mining project that got approved

Huge benefits for the Hauraki District - as a major mining project gets the green light to expand operations.

The Government's granted fast track approval for Waihi North to expand its operations in Hauraki District until 2043.

Resources Minister Shane Jones estimates it'll generate an additional $5.2 billion dollars from gold and silver exports across its 18-year life.

Hauraki District mayor Toby Adams says this will bring a lot of economic wealth into the region - beyond just gold and silver profits.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is the business How Sam Dickey wraps the year
on the markets for twenty twenty five. That's after six
thirty the sevening into Brady in the UK. Jamie McKay,
Host of the Country, joins us too. A big mining
project has gained fast track approval to expand operations and
Why He approval time for Why He North was cut
from an estimated weight for it five years to consent

(00:20):
to one hundred and twelve days. Hodaki District Me to
Toby Adams's with me tonight, Toby, good evening.

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good evening, How are you right? Good?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Think your shoes? That's quick, isn't it?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Got me answering the phone all the time it took
for them to get the content both Toby, Yeah, no, yeah, no,
that is that it took a little bit of a
process to get it to the fast track content. But yeah,
that is that is a quicker way of doing things
for sure.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Do you think that this means you will get pushed,
you know, more pushback than you would otherwise have gotten
to because the community hasn't had much of a say.

Speaker 2 (00:53):
I mean, the community did get a little bit of
a you know, there was a short amount of time
that they could put some submission in, but council got
a little bit of time and we'd we'd you know,
we'd worked on it previously, so we have been working
with the company for a number of years. We kind
of knew the type of things that we needed to
put in there for a submission, and we've got a
lot of those things through. So we're quite comfortable that
the communities has been heard.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
You've done the leg work?

Speaker 2 (01:16):
What what are They're definitely done the leg work.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
What are the benefits?

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean, there's a lot of benefits for for the
workforce for sure. You know, it brings economic wealth into
the region. And there's a lot of people that say
that the gold profits go overseas, and that may well
be true, but there's a lot of employment locally within
the Hedaki region and further afield that really get that
benefit out of it. Good paying, well paying jobs.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
Yeah, it's they're five point two billion and additional gold
and silver exports, but that is the exports. Do you
know how many jobs are Do you have a number
of extra jobs for this particular.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Mind, Yeah, I mean I've been talking an extra three
hundred jobs, So that's a that's a that's a big employer,
so that just creates more families yet permanent jobs.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Great, what's not to like? What about the environment? Do
you know what is the worst case scenario with this
or is it kind of like it's why we already
do mining people are used to it, or are there
specific environmental potentially environmental flow on effects from this particular project.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
There's always an environmental aspect to mining or any sort
of mineral distraction, whether it's a quarry, coal, dol silver,
whatever it is, is always going to be that environmental issue.
This is a company that we've worked with for a
number of years and I have to say that they
try as much as they can to be as environmentally
neutral as they possibly can. Obviously there's tailing steams, which

(02:44):
is the biggest concern that people have, but the manner
in which they construct them and look after them is
second to none. It's probably some of the best in
the world.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Appreciate your time, Toby. Thank you. Toby Adams, who's the
Hurdoki District mayor talking about the fat great news? Well,
I mean, unless you are Catherine Della Hunty, I don't
mean she's going to be stoked about this, but everyone
else I imagine, and why he will be pretty happy
with it.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
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