Non minimum impact activities including prospecting, exploration and mining

Any prospecting, exploration and mining that is not minimum impact requires an access arrangement under Sections 54 and 61 of the Crown Minerals Act.

Applying for an access arrangement

Applications for an access arrangement should be made to the Community Relations Manager in the relevant conservancy office. The amount of detail necessary in your application will depend on the scope and scale of your proposed operation. Completing a detailed application will assist with the efficient processing of your application.

The Assessment of environmental effects guidelines outline the information required in an access arrangement application. Application forms and guidelines are available from your local conservancy office or you can download them here.

DOC is required to take into account any views that tangata whenua may have about your application and it is recommended that prior to lodging an application, you consult with the relevant Iwi regarding your application. Your conservancy office can provide contact details.

You may also require a concession from DOC for any related activity on public conservation land outside of the mineral permit boundary or for any associated wildlife permits.

Before your activity can commence you may also require resource consent from your regional or district councils or approval from the Historic Places Trust. You should contact these organisations for further information.

View a flowchart that shows the process (PDF, 15K).

Decisions

Applications for consent will be considered with regard to the:

• Objectives of the various legislation
• Purpose for which the land in question is held
• Conservation management strategy and any management plans in place for the land; and
• Safeguards to be put in place against any potential adverse effects of carrying out the proposed activity.

The decision may also include the decision-maker having regard to other matters they consider relevant such as compensation.

Costs

DOC requires applicants to meet the actual and reasonable costs of considering their applications, including staff time and any travel costs for site visits. The payment of costs does not imply that your application will be successful. Should you withdraw your application at any stage, you will be liable for the processing costs up until that time.

• All applications must be accompanied by a non refundable lodgement fee of $200 + GST, as well as a completed credit application form.
• Low impact applications: an additional set fee of $1500 + GST is payable over the processing period.
• Medium and high impact applications: An estimate of the additional likely costs of processing your application will be provided to you once your application is complete.

The conservancy office will determine which category your access arrangement application fits in.

Timeframes

Access arrangement applications will be processed in a timely manner and the overall targets for processing are:

• Low impact: 2 months/44 working days target processing time
• Medium impact: 4 months/88 working days
• High impact: 8 months/176 working days

Note that the timeframes refer to the actual time during which DOC is able to process the application and do not include the time spent awaiting further information or comment from the applicant, or when the applicant has put the application on hold.

Application forms and guidelines

Access arrangement application form (PDF, 82K)

Credit application form (PDF, 33K)

General environmental assessment guidelines (PDF, 62K)

Environmental effect assessment for mineral exploration and prospecting (PDF, 69K)

Environmental effect assessment for small gold dredge/screen (PDF, 73K)

Environmental effect assessment for large gold dredge/screen (PDF, 67K)

Environmental effect assessment for underground gold mining operations (PDF, 94K)

Environmental effect assessment for opencast gold mining operations (PDF, 68K))

Environmental effect assessment for underground and opencast coal mining operations (PDF, 185K)

Guidelines on revegetation of alluvial goldmines (PDF, 606K)

Viewing these documents

These documents are currently only available on this website as PDFs or other files such as Word or Excel. If you can't view these files please get in touch with the listed contact to request another format or a hard copy. About PDFs and other inaccessible content.

back to top