83% of New Zealanders agree mining is important for our jobs and communities. They are right.
Some of what mining delivers, you can see. The phone in your hand. The car in your driveway. The wires in your walls.
Some of it, you can’t. The above-average wages that offer good job opportunities for young people. The export revenue that helps fund New Zealand’s infrastructure. The highly-skilled regional roles that also contribute positively to our productivity rates. The community support that quietly holds the country up.
Modern life runs on mining, in ways both obvious and easy to miss.
Did you know?
To produce solar panels you need at least 15 types of mined minerals.
Most fridges and other household whiteware are made with mined minerals.
More than 40 mined minerals and rare earth elements are used to make a single smartphone.
Mining in New Zealand looks after our people and places
Here in New Zealand, we have shown that mining and environmental protection can coexist. Our provenance story is good.
Mining companies in New Zealand are doing some world leading environmental work and are adhering to the most stringent standards in employment and health and safety too.
Stockton mine
Stockton is the scene of large-scale site rehabilitation into indigenous subalpine shrubland, typical of the West Coast plateau landscape where it is located. Rehabilitation includes new plantings as well as vegetation direct transfer – picking up plants in soil and moving them to another area where they can grow.
Mussel shell reactors
In potentially a world first, mines in New Zealand are recycling waste shells from commercial mussel farming to clean up water from mines. Waste mussel shell reactors remove up to 98 percent of iron, nickel and zinc, while neutralising the acidity. The waste mussel shells have a high calcium carbonate content and wide surface area.
