Mining company fined for contaminant discharge into the Tasman Sea

An iron ore mining company operating at Taharoa, on Waikato’s west coast, has been convicted and fined in the Hamilton District Court for the unlawful discharge of sediment laden water into the coastal marine area in January 2023. 

Taharoa Ironsands Limited was fined $105,000 by District Court Judge Melinda Dickey in a sentencing decision released this week following a Resource Management Act prosecution taken by Waikato Regional Council. 

Taharoa Ironsands Limited operates an industrial processing site where iron ore is extracted from sand deposits and pumped out to cargo ships, berthed three kilometres offshore, for export overseas.  A by-product of the mining process is sediment laden water that is treated and recycled on the site in a series of settling ponds.

On 26 January 2023, the council was notified by members of the public about “a thick brown sludge” discharging from the site into the Tasman Sea. The council response identified that there had been a discharge, over a two-day period, of approximately 1.8 million litres of sediment laden water into the foreshore and coastal marine area. 

Waikato Regional Council’s Compliance Manager Patrick Lynch said: “This was an avoidable pollution event of a large scale. All industries need to be vigilant against harmful discharges into the environment.” 

“Infrastructure on site was not adequately managed and in this case the Court determined that the effects on the environment were serious in the short term, diminishing to moderate-to-low as time passed,” Lynch stated. 

Image 1: Discharge from pipes

Image 2: Discharge channel to beach