The Government should have bailed-out Solid Energy to keep miners at work at its unprofitable underground Spring Creek coal mine on the West Coast, environmental groups opposed to coal mining say.
While Forest and Bird and the West Coast Environment Network vowed to fight West Coast coal mine developer Bathurst Resources' plans to mine the Denniston Plateau above Westport, both said yesterday they did not want outright mine closures.
Because of plunging global coal prices, Solid Energy was laying off 440 staff around the country, including 222 at Spring Creek, and 130 contractors.
Forest and Bird Top of the South field officer Debs Martin said yesterday the Government should have offered some financial assistance to keep Spring Creek open, but should also be considering assisting the entire West Coast to look at long-term transitions away from being coal reliant, to tourism, sustainable dairying or boutique industries.
"We have never advocated for mines to shut down. It's too disruptive to communities and [also] needs a transition time," Ms Martin said.
"The Government could have been more supportive and helped financially ... Yes, to keep the mine open," she said.
Similarly, West Coast Environment Network spokeswoman Lynley Hargreaves said coal production needed to be phased out slowly.
The opening and closing of mines because global prices fluctuated was "incredibly unhelpful, both in terms of community cohesion and a sustainable future for the West Coast".
"We've never asked for existing jobs to be lost because we really understand how these boom and bust cycles negatively effect communities," she said.
Forest and Bird and the Network were challenging, in the Environment Court late next month, more than 20 consents issued to Bathurst more than a year ago by two West Coast councils. The project is already between eight to 12 months behind schedule.
Ms Martin said communities needed to talk through long-term employment opportunities as there was no immediate "silver bullet" available for when mines suddenly closed.
She said opportunities to be considered included boutique accommodation, tourism such as guiding, rafting and mountain-biking, home insulation industries, non-corporate dairying, sustainable forest planting and native tree logging.
Both groups have criticised Economic Development Minister Stephen Joyce, who earlier this week called for both groups to drop their court challenges so Bathurst could get on with mining and offer Spring Creek workers up to 225 jobs.
Ms Hargreaves said Bathurst's Escarpment mine case begins in the Environment Court in late October, and it was "deeply inappropriate" for a minister to "intervene in a case that is before the courts".
"There are very important issues at stake here. We are talking about large-scale opencast mining on high-value conservation land," she said.
