'Critical' Minerals, Mining and Sustainable Futures

This symposium brings together scholarly and practitioner perspectives to examine what mining critical minerals in New Zealand entails and whether/under what conditions, it might be pursued sustainably. With growth in global demand for minerals essential to the energy transition and as New Zealand resumes critical mineral trade deal with the US, the symposium will examine the opportunities and challenges associated with the extraction of critical minerals in Aotearoa New Zealand and consider how extractive practices might be pursued within existing regulatory frameworks and environmental management systems, while also addressing questions of sustainability, community engagement, and Māori rights as Treaty partners in resource governance.

This symposium is part of a series of events marking the 30th anniversary of the Development Studies programme at VUW.

Info: New Zealand hosts a diverse range of critical mineral occurrences, encompassing rare and technology-enabling elements, precious commodities, and bulk construction materials fundamental to modern infrastructure. This presentation outlines their spatial distribution as well as some key geological processes responsible for the concentration of critical minerals. It further examines modern exploration and scientific approaches, emphasising how geoscientists integrate and interpret these data to reduce uncertainty and identify prospective exploration areas. The presentation will demonstrate digital mapping platforms that enable visualisation of mineral occurrences and mineral system components, data that can even be used in artificial intelligence and machine learning workflows to support the identification of new mineral deposits.

Info: Aotearoa does not have realistic prospects for a significant critical minerals mining sector, in the medium-term at least. This is despite the rhetorical flourishes of Minister Jones and an agreement with the increasingly erratic USA. This presentation seeks to lay to rest myths around the short-term future of critical minerals and mining in Aotearoa (it will tend to be small-scale, niche and/ or in combination with other minerals), it will not transform regional economies (the contributions are inevitably overstated), and under the current regime nor will it contribute significantly to national growth. Several key shifts in approach are required before the sector can realistically be linked to sustainable futures for Aotearoa.

Info: Drawing on insights from the Ngāti Ruanui experience, this korero examines how mining intersects with whenua, tikanga, and kaitiakitanga, highlighting concerns around environmental stewardship, sovereignty, and intergenerational wellbeing.

Info: The effects of mineral extraction stretch far beyond the mine itself. Most minerals must be refined – chemically converted to a useful material – and this process often dominates the overall environmental and economic impact. If we are to extract more minerals in Aotearoa, we need to consider what happens to them. Many of the refining processes used around the world could never be performed in New Zealand, producing hazardous wastewater and vast CO2 emissions. Offshoring our mineral refining dodges this issue but sacrifices economic benefits and abdicates environmental responsibility. Can we develop sustainable, economically viable processes to onshore refining? When does it make sense to do so? This presentation will consider how New Zealand’s minerals are currently refined, and what the future could look like for sustainable refining here in Aotearoa.

Info: The mining debate in Aotearoa New Zealand is as polarised as ever – and, unusually, most sides have a point. This presentation will interrogate three things. First: why we should be critical of the ‘critical minerals’ frame, and who benefits from treating urgency as a substitute for scrutiny. Second: how global structural and financial factors make new mines genuinely hard to establish, difficult to regulate, and risky to communities. Third: what the evidence actually tells us about what builds or destroys community trust in mining companies – and why the current government’s pro-mining enthusiasm may be the industry’s most significant near-term risk.

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Host or Publisher School of Geography, Environment & Earth Sciences