NZMIA > overview > introduction > a matter of balance

Everything in our lives is a matter of balance. The balance between income and expenditure, profit and loss, work and leisure, imports and exports, supply and demand. The balance of nutrients in the food we eat to maintain our health; the balance in our ecosystem to maintain our plant and animal species, and more. Our everyday lives, our lifestyles, are one giant balancing act. In everything, when you strike the right balance, then you achieve the best results.

One significant balancing act in our modern world relates to our land use activities. These activities play a vital role in New Zealand's economic growth and development and directly affect our export earnings, employment opportunities and our standard of living.

In recent years, with the emphasis on the conservation of land and preservation of natural resources, many areas once accessible to various industries for activities such as mining have been protected under government legislation. This has affected the balance between what we are achieving economically for our country and what we could achieve. Much of this protected land is of low conservation value, but is host to many minerals that now cannot be mined for use within New Zealand or exported overseas. This jeopardizes many employment opportunities for New Zealanders and means lost revenue for the country.

It is vitally important that we protect our environment. It is also vitally important that we protect our job opportunities, our economy, our lifestyles, our standard of living - our future. Our environment provides us with the natural resources and raw materials that we use to produce everything we need to support and maintain our current standard of living.

We need to strike a balance. Our decisions on land use activities must be given careful consideration. We must take into account the impact of these decisions now - and in the future. We need to ascertain the true value of our land by weighing up the subsurface minerals value against the surface value; the advantages against the disadvantages, and the gains against the losses.

We need to get it right.

Getting it right is matter of logic, of common sense, of being practical - but most of all it is a matter of balance.

[facts about New Zealand mining]
[what are minerals?]
[why we need minerals & mining]
[what mining means to people]
[points to ponder]
[an age-old battle]
[a matter of balance]
[uses of minerals in New Zealand]
[mining & the Coat of Arms]
[New Zealand mineral production]
[you can't build a house …]
[materials in a typical family car]

[introduction]
[mineral exploration in New Zealand]
[mining & other land uses]
[history of mining in New Zealand]
[mining legislation: permits & access]
[environmental controls: the RMA]
[taxation & royalties]

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