It asked the applicant to reconsider its proposed timetable because the original dates would have left \u201cvery tight timeframes\u201d for the panel to assess the application, prepare its decision and complete the statutory notification process.<\/p>\n
The EPA said Matakanui Gold, the Santana subsidiary behind the application, had now indicated it would submit the final workshopped consent conditions by August 28 instead of September 11, giving the panel adequate time to incorporate them into its decision-making.<\/p>\n
Santana said it would not seek any further pauses in the application process.<\/p>\n
The Bendigo-Ophir project is Australian mining company Santana Mineral’s core focus. Photo \/ Supplied<\/p>\n
The company said it had spent about $10.1m on environmental, technical and supplementary forensic investigations, $4.7m on legal, planning and specialist advisory services, $1.9m on expert panel, Environmental Protection Authority, hearing and regulatory assessment fees, and $1m on cultural values work.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Damian Spring said the panel had made it clear the revised timetable reflected the time needed to complete its statutory assessment and decision-making process.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe project continues to advance through the Fast-track process, and the finalisation of consent conditions in August will allow the panel to move into substantive deliberations on its decision,\u201d Spring said.<\/p>\n
He said the company remained confident the project was well positioned to receive approval and, subject to consents, begin development early next year.<\/p>\n
The proposed Bendigo-Ophir gold mine near Cromwell is among the highest-profile projects being considered under the Government\u2019s fast-track consenting regime.<\/p>\n
Since lodging its application, Santana said it had taken part in public hearings, 24 multidisciplinary expert conferences, multiple rounds of requests for further information, expert workshops and additional technical investigations as the assessment progressed.<\/p>\n
Ben Tomsett is a journalist based in Dunedin. He joined the Herald in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It asked the applicant to reconsider its proposed timetable because the original dates would have left \u201cvery tight…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":549177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[269718,74,193093,5750,12796,182284,138,1853,40570,802,1601,24572,4241,3594,1132,57537,23472,130,111,139,69,9629,12253,29056,87106,110108,134833,182283,12633,131,102337],"class_list":["post-549176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-177m","tag-after","tag-agreeing","tag-application","tag-approval","tag-bendigoophir","tag-business","tag-central","tag-considering","tag-costs","tag-expert","tag-fasttrack","tag-gold","tag-hit","tag-million","tag-mine","tag-minerals","tag-more","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-otago","tag-panel","tag-proposed","tag-pursuing","tag-requested","tag-revised","tag-santana","tag-spent","tag-than","tag-timetable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549176","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=549176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/549176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/549177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=549176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=549176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=549176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}