Applicant
Oceana Gold (New Zealand) Limited
Case number(s)
201810240
Decision date
Type
Decision
Decision

Consent granted

Section 12(a) Overseas Investment Act 2005
Decision MakerOverseas Investment Office
Decision Date31 January 2020
Pathway(s)Sensitive land – substantial and identifiable benefit to New Zealand
InvestmentAn overseas investment in sensitive land, being the Applicant's acquisition of a freehold interest in 19.5012 hectares of land at 682 Golden Valley Road, Waihi.
Consideration$1,500,000
Applicant

Oceana Gold (New Zealand) Limited
United States Public (49.0%)
Canada Public (19.0%)
United Kingdom Public (9.0%)
Australian Public (9.0%)
European Public (8.0%)
Federal Republic of Germany, Germany (4.0%)
Various, Various (2.0%)

Vendor

Beverley Anne Hall
New Zealand (100%)

Background

The Applicant is a wholly owned subsidiary of OceanaGold Corporation, an overseas company listed on the Australian and Toronto stock exchanges. The Applicant operates two major mining developments in New Zealand – the Waihi gold mines and Macraes gold mines (situated in Otago).
The land is sensitive land because it includes non-urban land over five hectares in size. The land is currently used for grazing stock and as a domestic residence.
The Applicant owns and wishes to develop a property adjoining the land by constructing an artificial hill made up of rock excavated from its mines (a ‘rock stack’). The construction work will involve heavy machinery and large vehicles (such as diggers and bulldozers), which will generate a lot of noise. The occupants of a farmhouse on the land could potentially limit the hours and extent of the construction work by objecting to the noise through the Resource Management Act process. The land is therefore being acquired in order to create a ‘noise buffer’. 

The Applicant will not be changing the use of the land. The Applicant will continue to lease the pastures on the land to neighbouring farmers for grazing and will rent a farmhouse to tenants (who it expects to be either mine workers or locals).

The main benefits of Oceana Gold’s investment are that:

  • the investment  is likely to result in increased efficiency and a reduction in fixed costs due to the ore processor running at full capacity and over a shorter period;
  • Oceana Gold has made previous investments in gold mines at Waihi and Otago which have been beneficial to New Zealand;
  • the investment  is likely to enhance viability of existing infrastructure (but as the rock stack construction would occur anyway, this is a timing and scale difference only);
  • a stream on the land has been offered for sale to the Crown; and 
  • Oceana Gold intends to plant native plants on the stream bank and fence a stream on the land.

The rock stack must be completed, stabilised and remediated (covered in topsoil and planted in grass or other suitable vegetation) by 31 December 2039 and the land must be sold within 18 months of the remediation being completed.

More information

Robert Huse
Anderson Lloyd Lawyers
PO Box 201
QUEENSTOWN 9300