Sams Creek Collective welcomes the decision by MBIE division NZ Petroleum and Minerals (NZPAM) to decline Australian company Siren Gold’s mining permit application for a proposed gold mine at Golden Bay’s Sams Creek, calling it “the best news of the year”.
In an ASX announcement yesterday – https://www.sirengold.com.au/site/pdf/66d85961-1fe6-4812-95ff-7cda7c36b72e/Sams-Creek-Mining-Permit-Application-Declined.pdf?Platform=ListPage, Siren Gold Limited (ASX: SNG) advises that its subsidiary, Sams Creek Gold Limited’s (SCGL) application for Minerals Mining Permit number 61324.01 in relation to Sams Creek was declined by NZPAM yesterday.
The Company is reviewing the decision and assessing its available options, including any potential right of appeal or applying for a further permit, if the land becomes available for permitting again, and if Siren could meet the requirements of the Crown Minerals Act 1991 (NZ), the regulations and the Minerals Programme for Minerals (Excluding Petroleum) 2025 (NZ).
In declining Siren Gold’s application, SCC understands that after consideration, NZPAM’s decision was that several of the tests that must be met under the Crown Minerals Act were deemed not to have been met. We are relieved that NZPAM has done the right thing in declining the application, as our group had pointed out the shortcomings to be considered to NZPAM over the past 18 months.
What does this decision mean?
Our understanding of what the decision means is that it is almost definitely ‘game over’ for mining at Sams Creek, as you can only apply for a mining permit if you have a current exploration permit. Siren Gold’s exploration permit expired on 25 March 2025 and it was only allowed to continue exploring while the mining permit application was being considered. Exploratory drilling should therefore have stopped as of yesterday.
Last year SCC’s geologist Chris Stone provided NZPAM with his review of the application, stating that it falls seriously short in several critical respects. The review found aspects of Siren’s application “profoundly inadequate in material ways” and that “Siren is simply out of its depth”. It found that Siren has failed to define its mineral resources, which remain very low quality, 64% being highly speculative ‘inferred’.
It commented that Siren has only submitted a far more superficial Scoping Study instead of the required Feasibility Study, has failed to present a credible mine business case, and lacks the stature, capital and capability to embark on or complete a complex mine development project. A key point was that “The Crown must surely consider Siren a wholly inadequate counterparty for a long-term, high-risk mine development”.
For those who were hoping there would be economic benefits for the Bay, the reality is that if this was true Reefton and Waihi would be the richest towns in NZ, which they are not. The opposite is true, as recent research found that they are poorer than comparable towns.
Thank you to all who helped make this happen
We believe that local opposition has played a strong role in achieving this result and thank everyone in our community who participated. With Manawhenua Ki Mohua and the Iwi Trusts submitting to NZPAM as katiaki exercising their Tino Rangatiratanga in Mohua, this has been a community-wide effort.
For nearly two years, SCC ran a sustained campaign to ensure that MBIE was aware of public interest and opposition. Our multiple OIA requests for documentation helped ensure that MBIE was taking everything they should into consideration. We achieved local and national media coverage of SCC’s views on the controversial mine issue, held public meetings, presented to TDC, submitted Official Information Act requests, conducted and presented research papers, and met with council and government representatives, among other initiatives.
Local group Save our Springs, together with Greenpeace, achieved nationwide support for its petition, presented to Parliament to protect the pure Te Waikoropupū Springs from potential toxic mining waste. The group produced a series of films and applied for a judicial review to halt the mine’s progress, which was to be heard later this year.
We are delighted at this outcome. The main risk from the mine is that toxic mining waste, including arsenic which cannot ever be remediated, would leak from its Upper Tākaka location into the Tākaka River and the unique marble aquifers that feed the Tākaka Valley and the Springs.
We believe it was always the wrong mine in the wrong place.
