Hi everyone. Just South of Hokitika is a little place called Ruatapu. Essentially the village is maybe 20 houses along the two sides of a single street, between the main road and the foot hills of the Southern Alps. There is one industry in Ruatapu: a sawmill. The sawmill is diversifying by applying to establish an open cast gold mine between the houses and the hills.

There are all sorts of problems with the mine (such as the buried PCPs that will be unearthed and carried forth on the winds), but the West Coast Regional Council gave the mine resource consents without notifying anyone, and the Westland District Council only sought the opinion of the Ruatapu residents. So only limited evidence was available and the mine has been granted its consents.

The residents are considering an appeal. One of the issues is around noise (as the mine would be just 15m away from the houses) and the residents are hoping to find an acoustics engineer prepared to provide expert evidence pro bono (or at least cheaply!). I'm happy to personally pay for travel and I know others will offer accommodation.

Anybody interested or know anyone who might be? Please PM me if so.