More than 100 people attended a Business After Five (BA5) meeting in Cromwell on Thursday night, where Santana Minerals spoke about the gold mining project ready for fast tracking.

A panel of experts from Santana spoke at the meeting, from engineers to environmental managers. The company has been transparent in the community over the last year - including holding drop in public meetings from Tarras to Roxburgh. 

A Bendigo vineyard owner raised concerns about leakage and its potential to dent tourism. Many believe Central Otago’s riches have long been built on visitors, wine and fruit.

The region’s natural beauty, clean air and water have underpinned an economy that continues to grow with no shortage of jobs.

"While open-cast mining may bring significant financial gains, we must equally weigh its impacts and risks for Otago’s people, its established industries and the natural environment".

Santana Minerals was continuing to boost up 'drop in' meetings over the coming weeks, and have made significant promises to the community, adding they were thinking with the end in sight, and ensuring the mine was left for the better of the community years after they finished.

The meeting heard there were over 800 people interested in working there, with at least 300 jobs on offer once it opened.

Santana Minerals chief executive Damien Spring addresses the BA5 meeting in Cromwell on Thursday. Photo:The Central App

Meanwhile, Sustainable Tarras was organising public meetings of its own, in both Wanaka and Dunedin next week, with a panel of experts - not yet identified.

Sustainable Tarras Inc chair Suze Keith said the panel will outline what is known about plans for the gold mine, take audience questions, and discuss what the community can do.

“From the information released so far, there are numerous very worrying issues,” she said.

“These include the size and scale of the mine right in the heart of an Outstanding Natural Landscape, the massive tailings dam which will hold 10,000 Olympic swimming pools of toxic waste, and the extensive use and storage of large quantities of cyanide just upstream of the Clutha River.

“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”

Santana Minerals said it was aware of the public meetings through posts on social media but hasn't been asked to attend or speak at the events.

Engagement manager Vicki Blakeborough said they were still working towards its application for consents through the fast-track process.

Sustainable Tarras believed Santana had not been “open and transparent with concerned locals”.

“They’re not providing us information we’re reasonably asking for, and which we know they have got,” Suze said.

The company has said while the project would be assessed under the fast-track approval process - which aims to streamline projects of national significance - there was mandated legislation and standards would need to be met, including the Resource Management Act and associated regulations and national policy statements.

Suze said the mine is “getting attention from people who are concerned that the fast-track process is being used inappropriately for a project which is not about public infrastructure or community benefit, but rather is solely about extraction of resources and maximising shareholder profits, most of which will go offshore”.

“This mine would become the largest single earthworks in Otago since the Clyde Dam could be approved without the general public having any right of input into the proposal,” she said.

People interested in attending the meeting in Wānaka can register to find out more here. www.bit.ly/notmine2025.

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