There is still no start date for a large-scale alluvial gold mine planned near Roxburgh as the company involved works through paperwork and land access agreements.
In August independent commissioners granted consent for Kokiri Lime Co Ltd to mine on 163ha of land at Coal Creek Flat now used for pastoral farming and horticulture.
Kokiri Lime director Mack Ferguson said this week a start date had yet to be set for the project.
"We’re just putting in all our paperwork — site management stuff, insurance and bonds. We had something like 120 consent conditions, so they’ve all got to be ticked off," he said.
At the time of the consent hearing, eight of the 19 landowners the company would require access from for the full project submitted in its favour.
He did not want to divulge where the company was with its landowner agreements, Mr Ferguson said.
"We’re working through them. We need a number of the landowners to start. We don’t need 19 straight away. We don’t get to one end of the job for another 13 years."
Some landowners did not make a submission during the consent process, Mr Ferguson said.
The project is planned to take about 15 years.
Some submitters indicated the project could be taken to the Environment Court, but no appeal was filed.
The joint hearing in June covered applications to the Central Otago District Council and Otago Regional Council. Kokiri Lime must deposit $1.15million in bonds with the district council to address concerns about the monitoring and rehabilitation of the land if the mine fails or the price of gold drops. It must also deposit $24,350 with the district council to be put in an amenity trust to benefit the Coal Creek community, including maintaining tracks and other recreation facilities in the area.
