However, the date when a start would be made on the new pit depended on gold prices, a company spokeswoman said.
A joint hearings panel of the Otago Regional Council, Waitaki District Council and Dunedin City Council has granted a total of 17 consents for the Coronation pit and waste rock stack to the north of the mine on the Taieri Ridge.
The consents are for up to 35 years.
The panel heard details of the proposal from Oceana and considered eight submissions during hearings in October, finishing on November 1.
In its decision, the panel said Oceana had made its case for the project and it should be allowed to proceed, subject to conditions to minimise it effects.
''There are significant benefits to the proposal and this is not inconsistent with the ethic of sustainable management of natural and physical resources provided the adverse effects identified are attended to ... ''
Those benefits included employment, purchase of goods and services and to the community such as improving school rolls and population.
Oceana also paid royalties to the Government on the gold it extracted.
The Macraes mine has been operating for more than 20 years, and already expanded beyond its original resource consents.
The new pit, which would take about three years to develop, would cover about 62ha and the waste stack about 105ha on farm land which had a mixture of pasture, tussock, wetlands and gullies.
Ore was available on the surface and would be mined within a few months of starting the pit.
Once mining of the pit was finished, it would take between 19 and 38 years to fill with water, although some waste rock could be used as backfill, if economic.
The waste stack would be rehabilitated with topsoil and planting.
Mining would be 24 hours a day, seven days a week but could be affected by bad weather, the gold price and wider mine issues.
The application included proposals for monitoring air quality, water quality, ecological, habitat and environmental effects, also covered by conditions.
The area had high landscape values, the decision said, but its remoteness, ''lack of public access, the intention to design the waste rock stack around existing gullies and contours means the landscape effects will be moderate to minor, depending on the view, from the south and minor, viewed from north.''
Effects on indigenous flora and fauna that could not be avoided would be mitigated with a protected area of wetland.
