Following a series of hearings that took place in November, three independent commissioners in New Zealand have greenlighted OceanaGold's (TSX/ASX: OGC) Martha pit, which is the first stage of an anticipated 10-year mine life extension for the historic Martha Underground Mine, located in Waihi town, in the North Island's Hauraki district.
The Martha project comprises two mining areas below the current Martha Pit, including Phase 4 of the Martha Open Pit and the Martha Underground Mine. Back in August, OceanaGold increased the site's indicated resource by 700% to 0.76Mt @ 5.8 g/t Au for 140,000 ounces of gold and inferred resource by 250% to 2.49Mt @ 4.3 g/t Au for 339,000 ounces of gold.
Following the recent approval, the Melbourne-based company said it plans to start work on the Martha open pit by mid-2019 and will also conduct underground work south of the current pit.
But the beginning of operations is subject to an appeals process that ends in January of next year and that is expected to generate some debate given that citizens and members of environmental organizations have expressed concerns about the potential vibrations from underground drillings. They fear that an episode similar to that of April 2015, when a major slip and a rockfall affected the area and caused the stoppage of mining activities up till now, could happen again.
However, OceanaGold has said that, once final consents are granted, it will begin stabilisation work on the north wall of the Martha pit.