Newmont Submits Correnso To Council

Posted by Gold FM on 20/06/2012

Newmont Waihi Gold submitted their application for the Correnso mining proposal to the Hauraki District Council on Monday. It is now up to the council to decide whether Newmont has supplied enough information in their application for it to be publicly notified.

When applying for a resource consent, the Resource Management Act 1991 requires that the applicant details the likely ‘effects’ that the proposal will have on the environment.
The effects of a proposed activity are a key consideration when the Council decides how it will process the application.

An Assessment of Environmental Effects must be prepared in accordance with the Fourth Schedule of the Resource Management Act. Newmont will need to detail the ways in which the proposal may affect anything (properties or people) around it and explain the likely ‘effects’ the Correnso proposal may have on the ‘environment’.
‘Effects’ are the consequences or results of the proposal, and they can be positive and negative, and cumulative. Common effects include: making noise; cutting down trees; shading; and generating traffic. ‘Environment’ means the area (including people) that surrounds the proposal and is likely to be affected by it.

A resource consents officer will write a report and make recommendations to the council about the application, who will decide whether to:

• reject the application as incomplete
• ask for more information
• publicly notify the application and call for submissions from any party

The council can reject the application and return it within 5 working days if it is incomplete. It should decide whether to notify the application within 10 working days of receiving it.

From then on the clock will start ticking. The Resource Management Act 1991 specifies maximum time limits for decisions to be made on applications for resource consent. 

When the Correnso application is notified the public will have 20 working days to make a submission to the Council. In the submission it is necessary to say whether you wish to support or oppose the application and give the reasons why you either support or oppose the proposal. A copy of the submission needs to go to the Council and one needs to go to Newmont Waihi Gold as well.

Notified applications take significantly longer to process and are more expensive than non-notified applications.

The Hauraki District Council has already decided to use Commissioners to hear the application once Newmont's proposal proceeds to a hearing.