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Mining: Paparoa National Park
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The Government is no longer planning to mine schedule four land.
To read more about this see here.
What area is targeted for mining?
The river terraces of eastern Paparoa National Park are blanketed in a thick layer of podocarp (rimu and kahikatea) and beech (red and silver) forest, watered by a healthy rainfall of 4-5 metres a year. Glacial action has carved out dramatic cliffs and sharp ridges. River action has built broad terraces with majestic trees. Paparoa National Park is home to major tourist hotspots, such as Punakaiki’s pancake rocks.
What minerals would be extracted and how?
Coal, gold and gemstones. The eastern area of the park of interest for mining is mostly river terrace (gravel), so any mining is likely to be open cast rather than tunnelling, resulting in native forest destruction and waterway pollution.
How would mining of this sort effect the waterways?
Coal mines expose sulphide in rocks to the air and water, which produces sulphuric acid and causes groundwater to become more acidic. Acidic water, along with sediment and coal fines, flow into streams and rivers, with an impact far beyond the mine. The effects can be severe, killing fish and invertebrates.
Contamination of waterways is obvious – streams can flow grey, black or brown due to contamination with coal sediment, which also smothers freshwater life. Gold mining can cause toxic substances and heavy metals such as cyanide, arsenic, cadmium, lead and zinc, to contaminate waterways.
How would this affect the native animals in this area?
The forests of the area are mostly unlogged and are continuous with the upland forests of the Paparoa Ranges.
The forest contains the threatened fern Asplenium cimmeriorum and supports a host of native birds, including relatively high numbers of great spotted kiwi kaka, kereru, weka, yellow-crowned parakeets and robin. Fernbirds live in the scrub and wetlands around this area. The forests are crucial for feeding and sheltering in colder months for birds that live higher up the ranges at other times.
Yellow-crowned Parakeet
These colourful parrots like to live in tall, unbroken stretches of forest & scrub so removing large swathes of ancient rimu and kahikatea forest will leave these birds homeless. These ancient forests will take hundreds of years to replace.
Kaka
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This endemic forest parrot, which is related to our kea, plays an important role in the pollination of flowers. Like our yellow crowned parakeet, they like to live in tall, ancient forests which are rich in berries and good roosting sites. Predated heavily, stripped of much of its habitat & now having to compete for its food, kaka populations are actively being bolstered by intensive conservation efforts such as Karori Sanctuary.
Fernbird
In the 19th century, ornithologist Walter Buller described the fernbird as "one of our most common birds” but it has been adversely affected by the subsequent widespread destruction of its natural wetland habitat following European settlement and is now rare. Wetland destruction and chemical run-off from mining operations will severely effect the homes of these birds.
Forest birds
This forest is home to weka, robin, tui, bellbird and wood pigeon. These lowland forests are crucial for birds that typically live higher up in the range, and come down in the colder months for shelter and food.