New Zealand Case Law: Decisions & Judgments | LexChat

Topic

Mining licences

Legal area

Court

17 Nov 2015

NGĀTI TE ATA v N Z STEEL MINING LTD & ORS [2015] NZCA 547

Citation

[2015] NZCA 547
Court

Court of Appeal

The Court upheld the High Court's exercise of discretion to release New Zealand Steel from its 1990 undertaking because materially changed circumstances over 24 years — including the pendency of substantive proceedings scheduled for April 2016, New Zealand Steel's confirmed time-limited commitment not to mine before 1 September 2016, and statutory heritage processes — made the undertaking unnecessary to protect Ngāti Te Ata and therefore continuation would not be justified.
20 Dec 2013

NEW ZEALAND STEEL LIMITED v THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL [2013] NZHC 3524

Citation

[2013] NZHC 3524
Court

High Court

The Iron and Steel Industry Act 1959 created a special statutory regime authorising ironsands mining without further authority and the 1966 licence conferred the contractual and statutory right to require the Crown to fell and remove trees as part of those mining operations; the Crown Minerals Act transitional provisions preserved those pre-1991 statutory rights so neither the licensee nor the Crown require resource consents under the Resource Management Act 1991 for tree felling and necessary incidental land disturbance.