Shane Jones: Resource minister attempts to attract mining companies, says he won't surrender to 'woke-ism'

Shane Jones is determined to use his voice to attract mining investors to our shores - no matter the next election outcome. 

The Resources Minister and self-proclaimed 'mining champion' is heading to the International Mining and Resources Conference in Sydney, to promote our supply of rare earth minerals. 

Jones told Ryan Bridge regardless of the risk of the opposition taking power, if there is no strong advocate for mining, then we surrender to woke-ism.

He says investors are warming to the fact New Zealand has a voice that is pushing back the tide, and without it, we'd be poorer. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Resources Minister Shane Jones is on a mission to sell
our minerals on the global stage. He's heading to Australia,
then he's heading to the US. He's attending mining and
geothermal conferences, hoping to push for growth. Chane Jones is
with me this morning, minister, Good morning today. What are
you hoping to get out of this?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Oh, obviously we've got to promote the fact that we've
got a handsome endowment for minerals. They've been hidden for
a long time as various governments have come to a
preoccupation and akst ridden denial of how important minerals can
be to our growth.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
Isn't the problem though, You'll say I'm pro minerals, let's
dig it up, and then investors might say, well, what
about your opposition who could be in next year?

Speaker 2 (00:43):
The Yeah, the problem that and I've had this discussions
with various other media. The problem that we've got. They said,
if we don't have a strong voice, which I represent,
and it's been absence since Helling Clark's time, then we
all just surrender to the shrillness and the wocism and
it's keeping us poorer. And I think what investors are

(01:05):
warming to is that in New Zealand there is a clear,
loud voice that's standing up and pushing back the tide
of ignorance. And look, if we don't do this, New
Zealand's going to be poorer for it.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
You've said we've got strong growth in permit applications. Do
you have any numbers?

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Yeah. Sadly, the recent crappy economic figures said that the
mineral sector wasn't doing well, but what it referred to
actually was the decline in oil and gas. Look, there
are hundreds of permits that have been processed. There's virtually
no one who is in a waiting line being mucked around.

(01:48):
I took over the role at the end of twenty
twenty three. I suggested to Envy that all decisions should
be made by myself personally. They promised me that they
could handle it, and they've lived up to their word.
These are not environmental permits. These are permits that enable
you to go prospecting, exploring. You still have to sort
out a land use permit and of course that's where

(02:11):
we strike dock. But TAMA is introducing economic criteria into
the Conservation Act that should accelerate the pace at which
the system allocates land use consents to the extent that
the mining is on dock land.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
There's a Utah governor, Spencer Cox I was reading about
last night, who's doing a trade mission here. Have you
met with the governor? And apparently there's eighty of them here.
They're quite interested in critical minerals.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
Yeah, and my officials are well and surely engaged with
not only this particular delegation, but we've got in our
mineral sands on the west coast, down around Hokatekula and Westport,
a mineral known as monocyte, and within that mineral are
a host of other incredibly important rare earth minerals and

(02:59):
looked as no order of interest coming out of the
States and various other places. So behind the scenes we've
got our own little global races to who can work
closest with the permit holders in New Zealand. But the
reality is they've got to step up to the plate
and spend their money because we're a free market, open
liberal trading economy, and money walks, some sort of crap

(03:19):
walks and money talks.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
Same. Jaine's Minister for Resources with us this morning. For
more from early edition with Ryan Bridge listen live to
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