Maybe it's a smokescreen for it's self... Like, there's other areas they DO want to mine inside national parks, but possibly it's not in schedule 4 land. They'll eventually say "Ah, well lets not mine in those areas 'cos obviously they mean too much to you all. Oh well, lets just mine in these other places instead. Aren't we nice for listening? Group hug!"

I have been very pro-mining, get the riches out of the ground and if it makes a bit of a mess then so be it, clean it up as best you can, replant, and give a bunch of dosh to the conservation dept so they can create walks, etc afterwards.

Last night I saw a very biased documentary about mining for gold in Nevada US, now I am not so sure. They have made a massive farken mess over there, and their rules are such that they don't even have to clean up. Once they stop digging they just leave these gaping 300-400 meter deep, 2+km wide holes in the ground and bugger off. There is also a whole lot of bi-products, acids, & mercury most specific that get into the air and waterways......

Now I feel a bit different about the whole mining thing. I still like the idea of harvesting the minerals, but I really hope that there are such controls in place that we don't end up with disgusting holes in the ground like this:

Holes are awesome.

happybaboon wrote:Maybe it's a smokescreen for it's self... Like, there's other areas they DO want to mine inside national parks, but possibly it's not in schedule 4 land. They'll eventually say "Ah, well lets not mine in those areas 'cos obviously they mean too much to you all. Oh well, lets just mine in these other places instead. Aren't we nice for listening? Group hug!"

ALL national parks are IN Schedule 4. but there's plenty of DOC land that isnt Sched 4, and is entirely mineable now.


and re: holes... have a look at Butte Montana some time... they've got the mother of all holes, up behind their town, it is slowly filling with a toxic sludge of heavy metals and cyanide from previous mining. when i was there in the early nineties the sludgey stuff was WAY down in the hole, like 150 m or so. looking at it now on google maps its nearly topping over... the city watersupply has been contaminated for years. its a big fucking mess. and being america, the mining company went bust (as they do to avoid cleaning up their messes), and the tax payer is funding it under the Superfund scheme...

I live in Papua New Guinea and have a bit to do with the mining industry. The Aussie miners have their hands full here and Oz where they don't have to worry too much about upsetting conservation types. I doubt they can really be arsed with the debate in In Zid. Yes I know they're dabbling there now but it's just that. I'm sure they've seen the shite the coal miner goes through saving snails.

I like big holes in the ground and big yellow trucks but probably fall into the NIMBY category.

As you were

This is the natural and inevitable outcome of what National is proposing to allow.

Don't worry Oli, thats nowhere near us.

Nah it's going to look like this. Plenty of snail habitat here

nzmatto wrote:... I really hope that there are such controls in place that we don't end up with disgusting holes in the ground like this:

2022404690104606292s600.jpg

This could work out really well for MTB - we've been trying to get into national parks for so long, once they turn the parks into big holes like this, they'll be perfect for epic MTB events!!

The maingy bastards...
"Oh, you've all put up such a good fuss we'll back down on mining the Schedule 4 land... instead, we'll just obliterate Northland and Dun Mtn, and the West Coast, and especially all that stuff south of Haast that is pristine but not under that pesky Schedule 4"
http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/73972/North%20Island.pdf

http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/73972/South%20Island.pdf

backed down, but they'll "explore" the rest of the fucking cuntry.

on the other hand,
http://www.med.govt.nz/upload/73974/Summary%20of%20Schedule%204%20submissions%20July%202010.pdf gives a good break down. submissions were overwhelmingly against. even if you ignore the 32,000 standard submissions drafted by F&B, the Greens, or Greenpeace (which i'm sure the maingy pricks probably did (ignore, that is)), the rest are still massively against it. Well done NZ. too bad it was just a big rort, 'softening' us to what could have just gone on anyway...

Where is that pic Oli?

Er, Gooble images?

Erm, ok then. Where abouts is that picture, geographically speaking. In NZ?

I have no idea in the slightest.

Dubai. failed terraforming development called "the world", was supposed to be tons of islands shaped up like a map of the world, surprisingly. its gone belly up now. check it out on Google Earth / maps, there's a big palmtree shaped development too, lots of which has also gone belly up. over speculated, money fell out of the bottom... usual story, "in these tough economic times"...

that pic would have been one of their "what it will look like" shots, cos they're all just piles of sand dredged from the sea bottom at the moment...