Increasing transparency on permit application timeframes
New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals (NZP&M) has introduced processing timeframes for minerals and petroleum applications received on and from 1 July 2024, and will publish results quarterly on its performance against those timeframes.
A range of factors have influenced increasing minerals permit application wait times since July 2020, including a sustained surge in applications due to high gold prices, enhanced regulatory processes, and the reduced quality of some applications being submitted.
While there are no set timeframes for assessing or deciding a permit application – as each application brings its own complexities and sensitivities – NZP&M is implementing an ongoing improvements programme for its permitting system and processes to ensure it is an effective, consistent, and timely regulator.
An improved permitting system means a better experience and more certainty for potential and current permit holders in planning and delivering their work programmes.
Introducing permitting timeframes will not impact the regulatory rigour applied to applications. The same processes, checks and balances will be applied to every application, but the ongoing improvements being introduced will result in accelerated timelines.
The first quarterly publication of NZP&M’s performance against the timeframes, for the period 1 July 2024 to 30 September 2024, will occur in early October 2024.
Permit application timeframes
Timeframes for applications enabled by the Crown Minerals Amendment Act 2025
How the processing timeframes are calculated
Non-working days in December/January, as specified in the Crown Minerals Act 1991, are not included in the calculation of processing timeframes for affected applications (e.g. an application submitted in December and decided the following May). Where NZP&M is waiting on information from an application in order to progress the assessment of their application, the timeframe is paused. The ‘clock’ restarts when the information is received.