David Farrar: No to SMPs for minerals

The Herald reports:

Resources Minister Shane Jones invited leaders from the minerals sector and diplomats, including a high-ranking official from the US State Department, for a critical minerals roundtable at Parliament today.

Jones spoke frankly with attendees about the US’ keenness to develop minerals supply chains and about the Government pondering minimum prices for certain resources in order to establish viable operations for their extraction.

Martin Brook: Mining vital minerals

By not mining vital minerals, NZ is ‘offshoring its own environmental footprint’ – is that fair?

When Resources Minister Shane Jones recently unveiled his draft strategy for mineral mining, it was quickly criticised by the Labour opposition as “taking New Zealand backwards”. One environmental group even called it a “love letter to mining companies”.

But the government’s ambition to double the sector’s export value to NZ$2 billion by 2035, with flow-on effects for local employment and regional economies, deserves a broader debate.