Santana Minerals has spent more than $17 million on its Central Otago gold mine fast-track application and it has accepted a new timeline for the decision-making panel\u2019s deliberations.<\/p>\n
Costs relating to the proposed Bendigo-Ophir mine included $10.1m for environmental, technical and supplementary forensic investigations, $1m\u00a0on cultural values and $4.7m\u00a0in legal, planning and specialist advisory services, the company told shareholders on Monday.<\/p>\n
The investment tally was about $17.7m, Santana said.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s update was principally about timeframes for restarting the Environmental Protection Authority\u2019s assessment and decision-making process, after it had paused in June pending more information.<\/p>\n
Timeframes had been an issue because it had been signalled deliberations could start on August 17, but supplementary information might not be available until September 11.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The expert panel asked for resumption of the decision-making process to align with receipt of extra information.<\/p>\n
Santana then agreed to bring forward the date of submitting proposed final consent conditions to August 28.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Damian Spring said the panel had been clear about the time it believed was required to complete its\u00a0assessment and decision-making processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe appreciate that clarity and have adjusted our timetable accordingly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The project near Cromwell continued\u00a0to advance through the fast-track process\u00a0and finalisation of consent conditions in August would\u00a0allow the panel to move into substantive deliberations on its decision, Mr Spring said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe remain confident that Bendigo-Ophir is well positioned to receive a positive outcome and\u00a0subject to approvals, commence development activities early 2027.\u201d<\/p>\n
Santana said it would not seek any further pause to its application.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Santana declared its Rise and Shine site at the proposed mine was the most significant single gold discovery in four decades.<\/p>\n
The proposed mine has been a source of contention in the community.<\/p>\n
Sustainable Tarras chairwoman Suze Keith said in April there were numerous areas of serious concern.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpert analysis across multiple disciplines has highlighted immense risks with Santana\u2019s deeply controversial project,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A combination of factors meant there was \u201cno doubt that this project in this area is just not appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n
At the time, Sustainable Tarras highlighted a reported cost of $8m from Santana preparing its application.<\/p>\n
Santana said it had worked collaboratively and used its best endeavours to satisfy all matters with the expert panel, regulators, technical experts, iwi, submitters and other interested parties.<\/p>\n
The company said on Monday it continued to receive encouraging indications from the Rise and Shine area.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery hole we drill into our high-grade core just gets better,\u201d Mr Spring said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Santana Minerals has spent more than $17 million on its Central Otago gold mine fast-track application and it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[138,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-546831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546831","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=546831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}