Trans Tasman Resources’ ghost jobs

Our wannabe seabed miners have been busy creating ghost jobs, jobs it says seabed mining would create.

One of the arguments the government and companies use to push the idea of trashing the seabed is the jobs the industry would create. The fast-track bill’s main purpose puts the economic impact of a project ahead of any other concerns, including environment and conservation.

But it seems Trans Tasman Resources has somehow magically inflated the potential job numbers - by a factor of around six - from what it told two different EPA hearings - and has provided zero analysis nor business case to back up the new numbers.  

Let’s take look at the history:

EPA hearing 2014: maximum 170 jobs

Back in 2014, the EPA turned down the first seabed mining application by TTR.  In its decision, it said: ​​

”While we accept that there will be jobs created by this proposal, it is not entirely clear how many there will be, how many will be based locally and what the spinoff will be to the local, regional and national economy.”

TTR’s own expert, in her evidence, stated the regional impacts on Taranaki would be:

(a) An increase in regional GDP of $220m or 3% per year, including impacts on related sectors and the service sector; and

(b) An increase of employment of 200 jobs within TTR and an additional 160 jobs in the rest of the economy.”

But it wasn’t clear to the EPA that these would be jobs in Taranaki itself, as it noted in its decision.

“As a result of the proposed roster system which will facilitate a fly-in fly-out/ drive in/drive out workforce, the estimated 258 workers are likely to reside across a large geographical area with the majority being based somewhere between Taranaki and Wellington. Based on the workforce survey of one shift on the FPSO operating in Taranaki, we estimated that between 35 and 58 new jobs could be filled by people residing between Opunake and Whanganui City.”

The TTR expert later reduced that number to 23-57 jobs with about eight jobs for locals. Including New Plymouth, onshore jobs would be between 120-170. 

In 2017, EPA hearing told 277 jobs - 80% of them not local  

In the 2017 decision, the EPA observed that new jobs were “unlikely to significantly reduce unemployment levels” and that around 80% of the jobs would be filled by people from outside the area.

TTR’s experts told the hearing  that only some of those jobs, mostly in the direct area, would be new jobs. 

TTR CEO Alan Eggars, in his evidence, told the EPA there would be a maximum of 277 jobs. 

2024: TTR magics up 1900 ghost jobs

Fast forward to 2024, and suddenly those job numbers have magically multiplied. In its bid to get the consent across the line in the fast-track process, the company and its surrogates have claimed new and exponentially larger claims of jobs would be created by seabed mining, none of which have been backed by any study nor any business plan. These claims contradict what they told the EPA over the course of two hearings.

It didn't even mention jobs at the March 2024 re-hearing (probably because the Supreme Court gave clear instructions: that TTR had to prove it would cause 'no material harm' to the seabed. Only after it had done this could economic considerations be taken into account).

Yet Alan Eggars told Newsroom in November 2023 they would employ 350 people directly and support a magical 1600 jobs nationwide.

TTR investor Philip Brown, in Stuff, had a similar claim, of 1600 skilled and professional jobs nationwide. 

While the media have quoted the company on these numbers - as has the Resources Minister Shane Jones, the company hasn’t provided any substantiation of these magic new numbers, with no explanation as to how they’ve suddenly increased sixfold to 1900 jobs.  

There is absolutely no evidence of these ghost jobs. And nobody has asked the company for any kind of verification of these big new numbers. 

TTR has always been clear that the material extracted through seabed mining would be trans-shipped at sea and sent straight to Asian markets.  The material recovered would be the titanomagnetite (iron ore), which contains "critical minerals" vanadium and titanium.

Local jobs would be few and far between.

They’re just big, fat, ghost jobs.  

TTR will say anything to get on the fast-track list 

As we have seen throughout this fast-track process, TTR will say anything to get onto the fast-track approvals list. It has told its investors.

• that it had been formally invited to apply for the fast track (it hadn’t, according to Minister Chris Bishop)

• that the Supreme Court had “ruled in favour of the project” (The Supreme Court quashed the consent)

• that it had environmental consents for the South Taranaki Bight (it has no consent)…

• and now we have these new ghost jobs. 

Goodness knows what it would tell a fast-track expert panel during a hearing: but none of us would be allowed in to challenge a word, we wouldn't see its application.

This company cannot be trusted.