Economic development summit worth weight in gold

The Far North District Council’s Ian Bamber is not a man to let the grass grow under his feet, but even the first term councillor has been amazed at the billion dollar outcome of an economic development summit just two years ago.

“After the last local body elections, the council brought economic development back inhouse from a local trust, and we organised an economic development summit for the Far North District,” Cr Bamber, chairman of the Council’s Development sub-committee said.

As luck would have it a geologist by the name of Richard Barker got wind of the summit and made contact with the council. And the rest as they say is history.

Although, that wouldn’t quite be true: prospects for the Far North and its people are anything but history when it comes to minerals development, as a joint GNS Science / NZ Institute of Economic Research study of the region’s minerals potential release late last month has revealed.

The study revealed the potential for billions of dollars of revenue over the next 20 to 30 years and an estimated 2700 new full time jobs.
(See Minerals Potential of Northland – Summary and Northland's Mineral Resources – Potential Economic Impact on this site)

Cr Bamber is hugely excited by what has been revealed by the study.

“This is massive. We are talking about inter-generational benefits. This is information that doesn’t go away – it can be used for decades to come,” he said.

“In one document, we have a tool that can help us to capture whole new opportunities for investment in this area; but it is also a tool that tells us what our potential for minerals extraction is.”

Cr Bamber said that early in the process his interest was piqued by the Otago Regional Council geophysical survey: “Based on that, I thought that a district council couldn’t actually have a better strategic tool.”

He said the strategic planning benefits that would come from a geophysical survey extended well beyond mining.

“It really is amazing – we could be identifying what land is good for producing wine, for instance, or identifying underground aquifers, particularly with the demand that we know there will be in the years to come for good potable water.

If the Otago survey was instrumental in demonstrating the potential gains for the Far North District, then a field trip to Newmont Waihi Gold’s operations a little further down the North Island was equally encouraging on the environmental front.

“I was hugely impressed with the rehabilitation work being done on their mine sites. Obviously it’s crucial that we go ahead with the right balance environmentally, economically and socially.

“I mean we have to look after the place – we quite like it the way it is up here,” he joked.

“This is big picture stuff for a district with big vision,” Cr Bamber said.

Current mineral production in Northland consists of high quality halloysite china clay for export, limestone for cement, agriculture, industry and roading, sand for building and industry, and aggregate for roading, building, and protection.

Photos: 1. Matauri Bay clay pit and inset of high quality china product; 2. Golden Bay Cement plant at Portland; 3. aggregate stockpile; 4. spreading aggregate for unsealed road maintenance; and 5. spreading lime on pasture for fertiliser.