Mastodawn

New Zealand winery Nevis Bluff enters Asia

Central Otago Pinot specialist Nevis Bluff will work with brand strategist Nimbility to drive sustainable brand expansion in the Asia region. Rebecca Lo reports. Nevis Bluff will join forces with brand strategist Nimbil…
#wine #NewZealandWine #Asia #CentralOtago #NevisBluff #NewZealand #NewZealandwine #Nimbility #SouthAmerica #Wine #WinefromNewZealand #WineofNewZealand
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2638207/new-zealand-winery-nevis-bluff-enters-asia/

Dining and Cooking May 11

New Zealand winery Nevis Bluff enters Asia

Central Otago Pinot specialist Nevis Bluff will work with brand strategist Nimbility to drive sustainable brand expansion in the Asia region. Rebecca Lo reports. Nevis Bluff will join forces with …
#dining #cooking #diet #food #NewZealandWine #Asia #CentralOtago #NevisBluff #NewZealand #NewZealandwine #Nimbility #SouthAmerica #Wine #WinefromNewZealand #WineofNewZealand
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2638207/new-zealand-winery-nevis-bluff-enters-asia/

James Harris

Apr 24

Gold, not mine, at #tarras

#rockAndPillar #centralOtago #CentralOtago

Electric Trike Apr 21

#SamNeill says he wasn’t prepared for ‘#PersonalAbuse’, #threats after voicing #opposition to #Aotearoa #goldmine.

Neill is opposing the open-cast goldmine, called #BendigoOphir, which #Australian mining company #SantanaMinerals is pushing to expedite.

“My family has been here for over 150 years. I’m connected to this land like nowhere else on earth,” the 78-year-old actor and winemaker says. “It’s perfect for wine. It’s great for tourism. And it’s one of the most beautiful and strange, remote places in the world.”

But this unblemished landscape could soon change permanently.

Mere kilometres from Neill’s vineyard lies the #DunstanMountains, shrouded in a crown of clouds. It is an area legally enshrined as “outstanding natural landscape” by the #CentralOtago district council, and it is in those ranges Australian mining company Santana Minerals is pushing to expedite a controversial 1,000 metre by 850 metre open-cast goldmine, called Bendigo-Ophir. In November, the company applied for consent from the #NewZealand government to tap into an estimated $6.75bn of gold deposits.

But the proposed goldmine has ignited a fierce division between #communities.

Local environmental group #SustainableTarras views the mine as a fast track to environmental destruction and a threat to tourism in one of New Zealand’s best wine-producing regions, which also has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

Post-Covid, two New Zealands are emerging: one that draws tourists globally to its Lord of the Rings-esque landscapes; and another, where the government has moved to abolish its dedicated environment ministry and is fast-tracking mining projects it says will boost the economy.

Critics claim Bendigo-Ophir mine will dampen tourism and threaten up to 650,000 native lizards, which Santana Minerals disputes. Opponents have also warned that a dam storing toxic waste from the mine could burst in an earthquake, a claim the company calls unfounded.

A Sustainable Tarras spokesperson says this “industrial-scale mine in the middle of one of New Zealand’s most pristine and iconic districts is not just a major risk to our environment, it’s also damaging to New Zealand’s ‘clean, green, 100% pure’ reputation.”

Neill, best known globally for his role in the Jurassic Park movie franchise, is backing the group and has presented a mini-documentary for the cause.

“I’m not against mining. I’m against this mine,” says Neill, who has grown wine under his Two Paddocks label in the region for 30 years. “If this mine goes ahead – and God willing it won’t – everything that you see [there] is under a claim [by the mining company]. And there will be mining all around us, and that’ll be the end.”

The Bendigo-Ophir goldmine is among hundreds of applications being considered under the coalition government’s controversial fast-track law, which prompted thousands to march in protest in 2024 and nearly 30,000 public submissions on the bill.

The resources minister, Shane Jones – a self-avowed disciple of the “drill, baby, drill” mantra – says the mine will create 357 jobs and indirectly support another 500 jobs annually. He wants New Zealand to double its mineral mining exports by 2035.

Tarras local Mark Davidson, 64, who has worked in farming and the wine industry, says the mine is a local solution to record numbers of New Zealanders leaving the country – most departing for Australia.

“It’s getting harder and harder to put a deposit on a house,” Davidson says. “If the economy here was better, I think you’d find that a lot of people overseas would come home.” He claims most locals are in favour of the mine.

The prospective mine will be assessed under the fast-track law, which can expedite energy, mining, roads and other large projects.

Some fast-track applications include “zombie projects” – such as a previously rejected hydro scheme on the Waitaha river. Despite being rejected in 2019 under Jacinda Ardern’s Labour government, it was provisionally approved under the fast-track law in March.

The former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark accuses the current government of having “little regard” for the environment. “Its fast-track legislation overrides key environmental and conservation protection laws. It is amending planning law over all in favour of development,” she says.

Hayden Johnston, a local businessman of #MāoriNgāiTahu and Scottish descent, runs a wedding venue and the Kuru Kuru winery within 5km of the mine site.

The opencast mine won’t be visible from his venue. But its processing plant will operate 24 hours every day under a 30-year permit, so he says it will probably be heard, a claim Santana Minerals says is not supported by modelling data.

Johnston, who has run his wine label for 24 years, says: “We would never have created a world-class wine region [here] in Bendigo if we knew there was going to be an opencast pit among us.”

Growing grapes is sustainable, he says. “Gold is a one-off. You crush the land. You make a huge, toxic legacy, but you can only take the gold out once.”

The mining industry has a long history of environmental disasters caused by poorly stored waste in tailings dams – a type of dam that will also be built for Bendigo-Ophir. Poisonous waste, including arsenic, will be stored there in perpetuity.

Prominent Māori businessman Ian Taylor worries about the 600km-long alpine fault running down the South Island. “[The dam] is going to hold toxic material in an area that has a seismic zone,” he says. “The liability or the risk we are placing – or Santana is placing – will last generations after they are gone.”

Santana Minerals states the dam has been carefully designed to withstand a one-in-10,000-year earthquake, and insists “there is no credible long-term failure mode that could result in a breach”. The company rejects its mine will negatively affect tourism, and says it is investing $10m in two lizard sanctuaries, totalling 67 hectares. The majority of the hundreds of jobs created, it says, will stay in the region. Many of the claims opposing the mine lack evidence, it says. “Critics have produced fear,” the company says.

A few kilometres from the proposed site, the only remnants of the 19th-century Central Otago gold rush are scars from dynamite blasts and rosehip bushes planted by Chinese miners.

For mine supporter Davidson, concerns over the tailings dam are unfounded.

“The miners back in the 1800s didn’t really give a toss about the environment,” he says. “Times have changed … Now, you’ve got things like the Environmental Protection Agency who make sure that things are done properly.”

But since taking office in 2023, New Zealand’s rightwing coalition government has faced growing criticism for its environment and climate policy agenda.

Under the previous government, Ardern had promised to ban new mines on conservation land – but the three parties in government failed to reach an agreement over the proposal. However, in 2018, they did halt the granting of new offshore oil and gas exploration permits.

Jones has described Ardern’s permit ban as “the most destructive decision in the history of New Zealand’s industry”, and he has promised to restart exploration. Jones declined to comment on the mine.

A decision on Bendigo-Ophir mine is expected by the end of the year.

Back at Neill’s farm he points out the native trees and the vineyards he has personally grown and tended to for decades.

Mounds of dirt punctuate the horizon stretching ahead of Neill’s vineyard from another mine.

For Neill, it is not simply an eyesore.

“I own land, but I’m not a land owner. The land is part of me, and I’m a part of the land,” Neill said, referring to the Māori concept of kaitiakitanga, being a custodian for future generations. “It comes with a responsibility, and you need to leave the land better than you found it.”

#NZpol #auspol #EnvironmentVsGreed #Mining

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/apr/11/sam-neill-vineyard-bendigo-ophir-goldmine-otago-santana-minerals

‘That’ll be the end’: actor Sam Neill joins fight to stop controversial goldmine near his New Zealand vineyard

Neill says ‘one of the most beautiful and remote places in the world’ will be permanently changed if Bendigo-Ophir wins fast-track approval

The Guardian

DoomsdaysCW Mar 8

#ZeroWasteAotearoa - Mine #EWaste for #gold, not beautiful landscapes

February 16, 2026

"As a fast-track consent is sought for a major gold mine in #CentralOtago and another has already been granted in #Coromandel, #ZeroWaste #Aotearoa is calling upon the government to mine #ElectronicWaste, not beautiful landscapes, for gold and other precious metals.

"E-waste contains a significant concentration of gold, with one metric tonne of electronic waste containing up to 800 times more gold than a tonne of mined ore. While precious metals (including gold, silver, copper) make up approximately 60% of the composition of some e-waste, gold specifically is highly concentrated, with a single tonne of circuit boards containing roughly 39 grams of gold.

"#NewZealand currently generates 99,000 tonnes of e-waste every single year. Approximately 98 percent ends up in landfill or is disposed of illegally, according to the Ministry for the Environment.

" 'At present the voluntary product stewardship scheme means that we have one of the lowest rates of e-waste recovery in the world. We are literally throwing gold away into landfills while proposing to dig it up elsewhere in some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes. It is the height of madness,' says Sue Coutts of Zero Waste Aotearoa.

" 'Like many people across the country, we are gravely concerned about the environmental impact of gold mining. We think that there are much better ways to get these valuable resources – and ensure that they stay in circulation forever, not dumped in landfills.'

" 'The World Gold Council says that only 7% of gold is used in tech but 27% of worldwide gold production is already from recycling. This is more than 4 times what we need for tech – there is no valid reason to dig up any more of our precious #ecosystems.'

" '#ProductStewardship would create a pathway for a new industry: one built on resource recovery of valuable materials and a #CircularEconomy.

"NZ company #MINTInnovation relocated to #Sydney because they could tap into flows of e-waste from extended producer responsibility schemes that collect electronic waste in #Australia .

"They chose not to invest in NZ because there is no regulated e-waste scheme here. That’s $60m in turnover that will be dropping into the Australian economy every year instead of ours.

"E-waste was declared a priority product in June 2020 requiring the establishment of a regulated product stewardship scheme under the #WasteMinimisationAct. Yet six years on, a mandatory scheme is not in place and no further work is being done.

"Electronic waste, or e-waste, includes discarded electronic devices such as smartphones, computers, and televisions. E-waste is a rich source of precious metals and #RareEarth elements, including gold, #silver, #platinum, and #palladium, used in #CircuitBoards and components."

Source:
https://zerowaste.co.nz/media-statement-mine-e-waste-for-gold-not-beautiful-landscapes/

#SolarPunkSunday #NoGoldMining #EWasteRecycling #MetalsExtraction #Electronics