Te Waikoropupū Springs faces an unprecedented threat!
These sacred waters, revered by Māori and cherished by all New Zealanders, are renowned for being among some of the purest waters on Earth. Right now, these sacred waters are under threat from a potential gold mining operation. The Save Our Springs campaign (SOS) is urgently stepping up its defence of Te Waikoropupū Springs.
Te Waikoropupū Springs in Mohua (Golden Bay) is facing an unprecedented threat: a potential Gold Mining Operation circumventing our hard-won Water Conservation Order through the Fast-Track Bill and bringing the threat of potentially irreversible toxic contamination to the aquifer that feeds the springs and on which our community relies on for drinking water.
Save Our Springs is rallying supporters to defend Te Waikoropupū in the battle to save our nation’s purest waters. Watch our new short film by Tim Firkin and Kevin Moran: “Sam’s Creek - fast-track to desecration” to find out what we’re up against.
Independently produced, shot, directed, edited by Timothy Firkin
Poet Activist and www.SaveOurSprings.nz campaign lead: Kevin Moran
Don’t Fast-track Tw Waokoropupū - Petition Delivery.
Here’s What we know so far:
1. Siren Gold intends to extract ore with a very high arsenic content.
by tunneling into the Sam’s Creek area. Ore may also be mined using the opencast method. Ore is to be taken out through the tunnels to a processing plant to be built at Barron Flats.
2. The processing plant will grind the ore to a fine toxic dust.
Chemicals and water will be added to make a slurry so it can concentrate the gold, using a flotation process. Siren currently plans to export the concentrate overseas and extract the gold from it using cyanide – but it hasn't ruled out using cyanide at the Barron Flats processing plant. There’s nothing to stop Siren Gold, from changing the conditions of the consent, after the fact, to use cyanide.
3. The rest of the ore powder will go into a huge waste heap. It will contain over 10 million tonnes of crushed ore, which is expected to contain roughly 70,000 tonnes of arsenic.
Enough arsenic to kill the entire world population.
The waste heap will be lined with clay to stop the arsenic waste from getting into the aquifer and contaminating the groundwater. However, this type of clay waste heap is typically suited to arid, dry conditions, not the type of weather seen in the Upper Takaka Valley which experiences around two meters of rain a year. The area is subject to periodic earthquakes and big floods.
4. Overseas, experience shows that waste heaps have a high incidence of failure, allowing their toxic contents to pollute rivers and creeks.
In the Upper Takaka Valley, which is covered in tomos (or sinkholes), waste heap failure would lead to arsenic getting into the groundwater potentially killing the tiny creatures that clean the aquifer, and, poisoning drinking water. Arsenic can also bio-accumulate through our food chain - plants to animals to humans.
5. Waste heap failure can happen during the mine operation, or after the mine is closed.
Either way, there's nothing you can do once you discover arsenic in the rivers or groundwater. Once rising arsenic levels are detected in water it's already too late, the mining company is often long gone. Arsenic has no half-life and is essentially there forever.
6. The most common cause of arsenic poisoning is contaminated drinking water.
Arsenic pollution is an invisible killer. – Arsenic lasts forever.
Join us in standing for the future and wellbeing of our region:
Your voice matters.
In just 3 simple steps we can ensure your voice reaches parliament.
-
1. Sign the Petition
Join Over 20,000 concerned kiwis in opposition to the Fast-Track Approvals Bill.
-
2. Craft a letter to your MPs
We’ve created an AI-powered conversational letter writer, designed to help you craft a personalised and compelling letter to all the government officials that will be voting on the Fast-Track Bill.
-
3. Share The Sam's Creek Documentary
We need as many voices added to our cause as possible. Share the “Sam’s Creek - fast-track to desecration” Documentary with as any people as you can.
Sam’s Creek: Fast-Track to Desecration
The story of a community mobilising to protect the natural world and nature's special places.
We want as many people as possible to know the story of Sam’s Creek.
We hope this film will aid in protecting other special places in Aotearoa that are also threatened by the fast-track legislation. It is the story of a community mobilising to protect the natural world and nature's special places.
We would like to thank the research team here in Mohua for the scientific information contained in the film.
www.SaveOurSprings.nz campaign lead: Kevin Moran
Independently produced, shot, directed, edited by Timothy Firkin
Nature needs your voice!
We've built a letter writing tool to help you quickly and easily share your concerns with parliament.
We’ve created an AI-powered conversational letter writer, designed to help you craft a personalised and compelling letter to all the government officials that will be voting for the Fast-Track Bill. The tool quickly and easily helps you craft a letter in opposition to the fast track bill, the proposed mine at Sam’s Creek and to protect Waikoropupū Springs.
The Unseen
A film about the battle to save our nations purest waters, Te Waikoropupū Springs.
The Unseen; is a 22 minute film produced by talented filmmakers Tim Firkin and Geoff Reid. It tells the story of the battle to protect the springs by protecting the tiny unseen creatures that clean the aquifer.
The Save Our Springs Campaign has been a collective journey by many people over the seven years of our existence. Many generous and hard-working people joined us in the waka that is SOS. We want to acknowledge the contribution of these generous people. Without them, SOS would not exist.
Our long standing fight for Te Waikoropupû
Don't fast track Te Waikoropupū!
Join the petition that has gathered over 20,000 signatures.
Over 20,000 concerned New Zealanders have already signed our petition that will be delivered to parliament next week. Urging cabinet:
Not to list Sams Creek Mine in Schedule 2 of the Fast-Track Approvals Bill, in recognition of the significant risk to Te Waikoropupū Springs
To amend the Fast Track Approvals Bill (by Supplementary Order Paper if necessary) so that activities that are contrary to any of the sixteen Water Conservation Orders are specifically excluded from the Bill.
There’s still time to add your voice to this urgent matter.
“ We don’t have the right to ask whether we are going to succeed or not. The only question we have the right to ask is what’s the right thing to do? What does this Earth require of us if we want to continue to live on it? “
— Wendel Berry