NZ mineral permits in demand in ‘evolving sector’, says Shane Jones
- 21 October 2025
New Zealand is seeing a gold-led “resource renaissance” that can be a bridge to future development of a significant critical minerals sector, the country’s resources minister Shane Jones has told IMARC 2025.
Jones, part of the NZ coalition government elected in 2023, has been a central figure in reforms aimed at improving the country’s domestic and foreign investment appeal. They include the 224 Fast-track Approvals Act (FTAA).
The minister said most new minerals applications in 2025 – 143 out of 150 – were targeting gold, with record high bullion prices “tipping previously uneconomical opportunities into viable prospects, and fields mined over a hundred years ago attracting new interest”.
“Over the last two years my government has progressed significant reform to provide the right conditions and policy settings to enable the sector to get to work and I’m pleased to say that it is working,” Jones said at IMARC.
“New Zealand is in the midst of a resource renaissance.”
Jones said after a 55% increase last year in permit applications received by New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals, to about 450, the regulator had fielded 207 mineral permit change applications so far in 2025 to go with the 150 new submissions.
“All this demonstrates an evolving sector,” he said, with activity driven “by interest in gold and more bespoke minerals such as antimony and rare earth elements”.
“Operations targeting critical minerals such as titanium, zirconium, gold and rare earth elements are driving a new generation of mining activity and attracting the interest of significant international players,” he said.
“We are seeing votes of confidence in our opportunities in the form of new international investments.
“Our goal is to double our [mineral] exports to $3 billion by 2035 and increase our domestic resilience when it comes to the minerals our economy needs to function and grow our contributions to global mineral supply chains.
“The legacy of gold and coal mining is that of a catalyst for transformation – for our economy, for our development, for our technical skills and trades and for our place on the world stage.
“Future mining in New Zealand will play to our strengths in terms of existing production while we develop new opportunities.”
Jones has been an advocate for continued metallurgical and thermal coal production in New Zealand, with the former even added to the country’s critical minerals list in its 2025 ‘Minerals Strategy for New Zealand to 2040’ publication.
“Coking coal will remain a key minerals export for our country well into the future,” Jones said.
He said the inclusion of metallurgical coal and gold on the list recognised the fact that they accounted for circa-80% of NZ’s $1.2 billion of mineral exports and were keys to “unlocking other critical minerals”.
Jones said he was consulting government colleagues on possible “tweaks” to the FTAA to increase efficiency after a NZ$200 million wharf expansion at the Port of Auckland became the first project approved under the regime in August, “less than seven months after the one-stop approvals shop opened for business”.
“There are currently 18 listed mining and quarrying projects in Fast-track, four of which have already lodged their substantive applications and are under consideration by panels.
“There is no shortcut on the standards we require in safety or environmental protection, however the red tape is gone, meaning you get a decision on your project in months not years.”
One of the projects in the FTAA pipeline is OceanaGold’s proposed US$350 million Wharekirauponga underground gold mine, about 10km north of the existing Waihi operation and township on NZ’s North Island.
Toronto-listed OceanaGold is spending about half its US$40 million 2025 exploration budget in New Zealand around Waihi and its long-running Macraes gold mine on South Island. The two operations are slated to produce up to 220,000 ounces of gold this year.
“The Waihi district is expected to produce a combined 1.6 million ounces of gold over 15 years [between 2024 and 2038],” OceanaGold said last month. The 1.2Moz Wharekirauponga deposit, with an average reserve grade of 9.2 grams per tonne, sits in a “high-grade epithermal district” OceanaGold continues to rate as world class.
It said last month changes in New Zealand’s investment rating were reflected in the latest Canadian Fraser Institute global mineral investment attractiveness survey which moved the country up more than 30 places to 12th of 82 jurisdictions overall.
Jones said “reframing the role of mining in the minds of Kiwis” was an important aim of the NZ government, as was development of its natural resources beyond traditional minerals.
He said petroleum operators could again apply for new prospecting and exploration permits beyond onshore Taranaki, “enabling the work needed to grow New Zealand’s dwindling gas reserves”, after the new government overturned a 2018 exploration ban.
Doubling the production of geothermal energy by 2040 for electricity generation and direct heat applications was also part of the government’s plan.
“I launched the draft strategy for consultation in July seeking to position the country as a global leader in sustainable geothermal development while delivering innovation, resilience and growth,” Jones said.
“I’m looking forward to progressing this work in the coming months.”
Proposed regulatory options for the development of naturally occurring and orange hydrogen were also being sought.
“Natural and orange hydrogen could be game-changers for New Zealand’s energy sector, particularly for our hard-to-electrify industries,” Jones said.
“My objective in the coming months is to get the right settings in place to enable New Zealand to be a world leader in this emerging technology.”
Get more information about New Zealand’s policy initiatives and the NZ government’s geoscience report, “The Mineral Potential of New Zealand”, at Stand E09 on the IMARC Exhibition Floor.
