VALENTINA RUIZ LEOTAUD on MINING.COM | 11 August 2017
“New Zealand’s Environmental Protection Authority approved Trans-Tasman Resources’ application to mine iron sands from the seabed of South Taranaki Bight, located 22 kilometres to 36 kilometres offshore from Patea.
The approval means that Trans-Tasman is now allowed to recover resources from the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. In detail, the company wants to dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed a year, for 35 years, to get five million tonnes of iron ore per year. The South Taranaki Bight has reported JORC iron sand mineral resources of 1,698Mt at 11.16% Fe2O3 for the Mine Area and adjacent Kupe Blocks at a 3.5% Davis Tube Recovery cutoff and a further 2,137Mt at 9.66% Fe2O3 for Stage 2 Block mine areas.”
