Kiwis Against Seabed mining today slammed Australian owned would-be seabed miner Trans Tasman Resources (TTR) for abandoning its application to the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to mine the seabed of the South Taranaki Bight. The company has today informed the EPA it is withdrawing its application.
Cindy Baxter, Chair, Kiwis Against Seabed Mining, says:
“This is an utterly cowardly and cynical move designed to get around proper scrutiny of this seabed mining project’s obvious failings. The Supreme Court quashed the 2017 consent and sent TTR back to the EPA to prove it would cause “no material harm’”
“There was absolutely no way TTR could prove that it wouldn’t cause material harm to the South Taranaki Bight if it were to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 35 years. So to avoid a strong ruling against it, the company has opted instead for the political route.
“In good news, this company now has no consent to mine the seabed, as that consent was quashed by the Supreme Court. But it’s now very clear that TTR’s putting all its eggs into the fast-track basket, relying on political lobbying rather than good science to get this project over the line. And the science was against them.
“The only way this company got its consent in 2017 was by leaning on the last National Government to change the way the EPA decision making process went. Two of the four members of its panel wanted to refuse consent, but the EPA gave the chair the casting vote.
