As a minerals company, obtaining the appropriate consents
under the Resource Management Act 1991 and getting permits granted for
exploring, prospecting and mining under the Crown Minerals Act 1991, is
necessary for actively exploring and mining in New Zealand. But the essential
mix of ingredients for a viable and healthy Industry go way beyond
this.

In the short term, an individual company seeking to operate
on or within the Crown minerals estate of New Zealand must chart a course
through the requirements raised by new cornerstone legislation, the Resource
Management Act, the Crown Minerals Act and, the Conservation Act 1978 (where the
minerals sought coincide with this estate).

However, this paper suggests that in the longer term for
individual operators within the Industry and for the Industry at large to remain
viable and sustainable and for New Zealanders to continue to enjoy its benefits,
much more is required. Not least of which is a better balancing of competing
uses and attitudes, which will require an opening of minds, a change in mindset,
topped off with those two most essential of ingredients advocacy and
leadership.

New Zealand has undergone massive restructuring in the last
15 years. Is it complete? Have each of its fronts evolved to the end point which
was envisaged by the designers of the regime? What are the advantages? What is
left to be done? What are the impediments from an incomplete transition which
are left to either dog the Industry or remain as a challenge to be removed to
ensure the Industry's smooth sailing into a prosperous and environmentally clean
and friendly future? A future wherein an educated and understanding public
welcome and are proud of the Minerals Industry to whom they owe the standard of
living which they enjoy.

This presentation will examine
the role of the New Zealand Minerals Industry Association (NZMIA) in paving the
way for an optimum operating environment in which to couch a healthy industry
into the future.