Focus on resolving outstanding minerals permit applications
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals is working to resolve almost 150 outstanding minerals permit applications by the end of the financial year, enabling valuable mining activity and signalling to the sector that New Zealand is open for business.
The outstanding list includes new permit applications and changes to existing permits lodged before 1 July 2023. The agency is aiming to progress all of them to the point where a decision can be made by 30 June 2024.
A range of factors have influenced the steadily increasing minerals permit application queue since July 2020, including bottlenecks in the system for accepting and processing applications as well as the quality of the applications the agency is receiving.
The work is part of an ongoing programme to improve the minerals permitting regime, providing more certainty for operators as they plan work programmes, and a better-managed mineral estate on behalf of New Zealanders.
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals has also agreed to put in place metrics to measure its performance and provide transparency against delivery on applications received after 30 June 2024.
Read the press release:
Focus on outstanding minerals permit applications — Beehive.govt.nz