Mining locations

Trans Tasman Resources wants to mine the seabed in a 66 square kilometre section of the South Taranaki Bight. It would dig up 50 million tonnes of the seabed every year for 35 years, dumping 45 million tonnes back onto the seabed, creating sediment plumes and dead zones. 

Trans Tasman Resources is also in the process of extending its 66 sqkm mine site by another 177 square kilometres. It also has another area inside the 12 nm zone of 635 sqkms.  This would bring the total it wants to mine to 878 square kilometres: an absolutely huge area.  

A former director of Trans Tasman Resources, Andrew Stewart, is in the process of seeking a prospecting permit in a 495 sqkm area just outside the TTR permits, again in the Bight.  

iIn 2014, the Environmental Protection Authority refused a marine discharge consent for Chatham Rock Phosphate to mine the deep seabed of the Chatham Rise for phosphate.  
CRP has also thrown its hat into the fast-track application process to have another attempt at getting permission, under a much weaker test than would be set by the fast-track process.