Mining In New Zealand

Mining in New Zealand began when the Māori quarried rock such as argillite in times prior to European colonisation. Mining by Europeans began in the latter half of the 19th century.

New Zealand has abundant resources of coal, silver, iron ore, limestone and gold. It ranked 22 in the world in terms of iron ore production and 29th in gold production. The total value of mineral production in New Zealand was $1.5 billion in 2006 (excluding oil and gas). The most important metallic minerals produced are gold (10.62 tonnes), silver (27.2 tonnes) and titanomagnetite ironsand (2.15 million tonnes). A 2008 report estimated that the unexploited resources of just seven core minerals (including gold, copper, iron and molybdenum) totalled around $140 billion in worth.

The mining sector makes a significant contribution to the New Zealand economy. In 2004 the value of production from mining (excluding oil and gas) was $1,142 million, or just under 1% of gross domestic product. In 2017 mining contributed $3,079m (1.3%) to a GDP of $235,945m.

In 2009 there were 6,800 people employed directly in mining, and 8,000 people, indirectly, flowing from the economic activity of the 6,800. The median wage for a mining employee was $57,320 in 2008, compared to the New Zealand median of $33,530. In 2017 mining employed 5,300 (0.2%), out of a total workforce of 2,593,000. In 2015 miners' earnings average hourly earnings were $39.86 and median hourly earnings $31.33, though the number of miners had fallen to 6,300, compared to nationwide figures of $27.49, $22.92 and 2,004,100 (3%). These figures may though need to be treated with caution, as miners appear to have been earning 5% of total income (average earnings x employees), though GDP contribution in 2015 was only 1.6%.

The latter decades of the 20th century and into the 21st century saw opposition to mining on environmental grounds. The Crown Minerals Act 1991 is a major piece of legislation relating to mining, and a review of Schedule 4 of the Act provoked considerable controversy late in the first decade of the 2000s.

History

Iron made from Taranaki ironsand was displayed at The Great Exhibition, London in 1851.

In 1865, the Alpha well was drilled near Mikotahi at New Plymouth. This was the first oil well in what is now the Commonwealth and one of the first in the world. A petroleum industry developed at Moturoa, including producing wells and refineries. The last refinery there was closed in 1972.

In 1914, at the time of the Huntly disaster, New Zealand's focus had been offshore as war was gathering steam. The government of the day acknowledging the importance of coal mining to the country's economic and social structure, declared it to be an essential industry. In the latter part of 1915, coal miners were specifically discouraged to sign up to the war effort. When conscription was introduced the following year, coal miners were discouraged from enlisting if called up.

Resources

Coal

Coal mining produced almost 4 million tonnes of coal in 2014, of which 44% was exported. In 2016 it was down to 2,834,956 tonnes, very similar to production in 2020. New Zealand coal reserves are in excess of 15 billion tonnes, mainly in Waikato, Taranaki, West Coast, Otago and Southland. Over 80% of the reserves are in Southland lignite deposits worth $100 billion. In 2008 coal was produced from four underground and 21 opencast mines. By the end of 2021 production was from 15 opencast mines, the largest being Stockton (see Environmental issues below), which produced 984,951 tonnes that year. The largest coal mining company was Solid Energy, a state-owned enterprise, until its collapse in 2015, but is now Bathurst Resources.

Gold

Prior to European contact, native Māori knew of the presence of gold –which was called ''ferro'' (modern orthography: ) from its brightness– but found little importance for it until they were informed by its use by recently arriving Europeans to ornament their watches and so forth. Prospectors discovered gold in the Coromandel Peninsula in 1852, sparking the Coromandel Gold Rush, the Otago gold rush and the West Coast gold rush in the 1860s. Initially alluvial gold was recovered, but then mining for gold in quartz veins which was recovered using stamper batteries took over. From the 1890s Otago rivers were dredged for gold, using New Zealand-developed floating dredges.

Up to 2003 an estimated 998.71 tonnes of gold had been mined in New Zealand, a little under one percent all the gold mined worldwide. Available figures suggest that to that time a minimum of 312 tonnes had come from the Coromandel Peninsula, 274 tonnes from the West Coast, and 265 tonnes from Otago. Production peaked in 1866 at some 22.9 tonnes. Gold worth $250M in 2006 was produced from two large hard-rock mines (Martha Mine and Macraes Mine

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