{"id":434269,"date":"2026-05-19T01:40:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:40:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434269\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T01:40:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T01:40:14","slug":"jones-urges-mining-bosses-to-apply-for-fast-track-before-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/434269\/","title":{"rendered":"Jones urges mining bosses to apply for fast-track before election"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mining bosses are hurrying to get their fast-track applications in before the election, wary of what a Labour-led government may do to the legislation.<\/p>\n

Labour\u2019s position has always been that the fast-track needs environmental protections at its core, which doesn\u2019t take mining off the table.<\/p>\n

With conservation lands being opened for development, potential American funding for critical minerals projects and an industry champion in Resources Minister Shane Jones, a sense of urgency is building for New Zealand miners as election day ticks closer.<\/p>\n

Last week, Jones hosted officials from the American State Department interested in funding critical minerals projects in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

A handful of mining executives had the opportunity to give an elevator pitch to the Americans, who flew in just for the meeting. They now await feedback.<\/p>\n

At the roundtable and in discussions after, the fast-track was touted as a good way to advertise New Zealand\u2019s mining potential to investors in theory \u2013 but feedback from experience was that it wasn\u2019t all that easy in practice. Jones, at the meeting, said he heard and accepted this feedback.<\/p>\n

After nearly a year and a half of operation, only one minerals project has found success with the fast-track: OceanaGold\u2019s Waihi gold mine extension. Forest & Bird has appealed that decision to the High Court.<\/p>\n

An application for the previously rejected Taranaki seabed mine was withdrawn after it was issued a draft denial. The \u2018fast-track\u2019 moniker has come to haunt its architects, who have said in the past a better name may have been the \u2018one-stop-shop bill\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Still, companies are keen to get their applications in before the election in November, in case a Labour-led government takes power and does something to make the process more restrictive.<\/p>\n

Robert Eckford is the chief executive of RuaGold, which hopes to run an antimony mine in Reefton (a project it took over from Siren Gold, which also wanted to use the fast-track). Eckford is chasing American investment, as Newsroom reported last week<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Eckford says his real job title is more like \u201cchief marketing officer\u201d as he pitches his project around the world. In these talks, he feels a sense of urgency. \u201cThe main thing that comes up is \u2018you\u2019ve got an election in November\u2019,\u201d Eckford says.<\/p>\n

The question is \u201cdoes fast-track live on or does it not\u201d, Eckford says. Maybe Labour would take mining out of the fast-track, maybe it would extend processing times \u2013 he wasn\u2019t sure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eckford says in an ideal world, he\u2019d have another six-12 months to work on the fast-track application, but is afraid he could miss the boat. \u201cThat\u2019s why we\u2019re breakneck speed to get it in,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Rachel Brooking, Labour\u2019s fast-track spokesperson, says her message has been clear since the beginning: the fast-track should have environmental protections at its core, and if you\u2019re a mining company looking to apply, treat it with the same rigour you\u2019d treat something under the Resource Management Act.<\/p>\n

Brooking says she\u2019s sent this message to companies \u201cover and over again\u201d, and that Labour will have further policy announcements on this issue.<\/p>\n

The best thing they can do, she says, is to apply the same standards to community consultation and environmental risk reduction as would be expected from the standard process.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But what about applications already in place, if the rules are changed after the election? Brooking says the best case scenario is that this is a non-issue, because any upcoming applications are submitted at a high standard.<\/p>\n

Eckford says he has 16 years of environmental data from previous companies\u2019 work: water testing, weather monitoring, environmental checks. And he doesn\u2019t want to conduct the type of mining operation people think of when they think of the stereotypes, or when they hear controversy coming from other minerals projects.<\/p>\n

Brooking says if the mining industry itself is worried about \u201ccowboys entering the process\u201d, then they probably agree with her on the need for a more robust fast-track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s of critical importance for New Zealand\u2019s economy that our environmental resource is respected, and that some people, some companies, don\u2019t get special treatment,\u201d says Brooking.<\/p>\n

Shane Jones, too, thinks the fast-track needs to be tweaked, albeit in a different direction \u2013 he wasn\u2019t more specific, but his track record is consistently for looser restrictions. Whatever he has in mind, to make it happen, his party needs to hold on to its place in government after November.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jones was confident this would be the case, but says his message to miners is \u201cget your applications in ASAP\u201d.<\/p>\n

He doesn\u2019t think this means they should rush through the due process of creating a thorough application: \u201cProviding they\u2019re not breaking the law, I feel that they should make the most of the opportunity. I don\u2019t feel that I\u2019m being reckless.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the law enables them to make an application, and they have the ability to operate within the law, bang that application in right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mining bosses are hurrying to get their fast-track applications in before the election, wary of what a Labour-led…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1389,112585,273,266,111,43,7439,139,69,135,53667,147],"class_list":["post-434269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-conservation","tag-election-2026","tag-environment","tag-government","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newsroom-pro","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-politics","tag-primary-industries","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434269\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}