‘Explore Northland Minerals’ booklet to be launched
PRESS RELEASE - Enterprise Northland - Wednesday 22nd February 2012
A 28-page booklet designed to lure overseas mining companies to investigate mineral opportunities in Northland will be launched at an international convention and trade show in Canada next month.
Far North Mayor Wayne Brown, chairman of the Explore Northland Minerals Group that has compiled the ‘Explore Northland Minerals’ booklet, says it’s designed to preview the soon-to-be published results of a recent $2 million-plus aerial geophysical survey of the region.
New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals (which manages the Crown Mineral Estate) has paid the lion’s share of the cost of the survey, with both the Far North District Council (FNDC) and Northland Regional Council (NRC) contributing $100,000 each.
Mr Brown says a comprehensive package of digital data from the airborne geophysical survey along with a geological interpretation will be available shortly from New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals (NZP&M).
He says the booklet –produced over the past several months – is the brainchild of the Explore Northland Minerals Group, which was formed several years ago. “The booklet’s designed to help potential investors (especially those from overseas) understand the opportunities, and necessary processes, of exploring the commercial potential of Northland’s minerals,” Mr Brown says.
He says the group – whose key membership includes New Zealand Petroleum & Minerals, the FNDC, NRC and a variety of industry and government experts – believes mineral extraction and its associated support industries, offers Northland some major economic opportunities.
“It has the potential to significantly improve our regional economic wellbeing and in doing so provide higher-skilled, and paid, employment opportunities.”
Mr Brown says the new booklet will be used as a marketing tool to catch the attention of the broader mineral extraction community (both domestically and internationally).
“It will also keep all interested and affected parties informed as to the work undertaken to date and how to obtain the new data and information.”
He says in addition to mineral exploration, the soon-to-be-released data will have wide applications in fields like geological mapping; geothermal exploration, soil mapping for forestry, agriculture and horticulture; identification of potential water-bearing structures;
geological hazard assessment; and engineering and construction investigations.
As chair of the Explore Northland Minerals Group, Mr Brown will showcase the new booklet on Northland’s behalf, alongside representatives from NZP&M, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise and GNS Science, at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada International Convention & Trade Show in Toronto next month. He will also take it to a New Zealand Government-hosted investment forum in Vancouver during the same trip.
As well as the Canadian exposure, Mr Brown says the group also envisages the booklet being distributed over the coming months via targeted one-on-one marketing to individual companies and as hand-outs at presentations in New Zealand and other overseas events.
Mr Brown says aside from its key membership, a number of other organisations have been involved with the Explore Northland Minerals Group over the past five years. These include the Whangarei and Kaipara District Councils, regional economic development agency Enterprise Northland, the Ministry of Economic Development, representatives of Australasian and international mineral prospecting and extraction companies and associations, GNS Science, independent geologists, iwi representatives and the Department of Conservation.
He says copies of the new booklet will be available online shortly via www.enterprisenorthland.co.nz or as hard copies from Enterprise Northland’s Whangarei offices.