So... we needed another string to our economic bow and the govt had decided to be bold and take squizz and see what lies beneath our fair land in the way of minerals.
Sadly - hysterics from the left and the greens have put paid to that. There is some room for criticism that the policy may not have been well presented. That the discrete areas that the government wanted to consider for exploration were small in the scheme of things and that much of the mining could have be been done unobtrusively, were messages that were sluiced out of the PR pan. Instead the country collectively developed the notion that holes like that of the Martha mine would make moonscapes of out National Parks thanks to the Greens and their misinformation.
Anyway we hope that the government has still left themselves some wriggle room and has not closed the door completely on the opportunity to extract the mineral wealth we desperately need. Done properly its not scary.
Not done at all is just a travesty.
Monday, 19 July 2010
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3 comments:
Well said!
I hope gerry puts a better spin on the backdown than your description. The whole idea was based on baseless assertions of so called wealth that ultimately would end up in someone elses pocket. The cost was way too high, as key found out - too unpopular and thank the gods for that man's addiction to having everyone like him. Did the greens and lefties stop this? Ask key - I think you'll find that 'middlenz' were the ones getting antzie.
I'm disappointed but not surprised that the govt has backed away from the stock-take.
The bits of land they were going to look at were hardly pristine and in one case already the subject of mining activity.
But hey, whats under the non-schedule 4 land will be pretty interesting.
Look at the recent reports on exploration activity north of waihi (and about 10-15k south of the bit of the coromandel area the govt wanted to look at) which are very promising.
Also Mcraes in the Maniatoto Central Otago looks like expanding and keeping people in work for some time to come.
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