Santana Minerals mining company offers $10m to protect lizards in Central Otago

An Australian mining company is offering an additional $10 million to protect lizards in a bid to help get its Central Otago gold mine project approved.Santana Minerals is seeking fast-track approval to build an open-cast mine in the Dunstan Mountains to target a $4.4 billion gold deposit.The company initially proposed 81 hectare sanctuaries, but its evidence suggested the conservative lizard population growth in those areas would equate to about 13 percent of the number of killed or displaced lizards.Legal submissions for the conservation director general this month said an estimated 590,000 protected lizards would be killed, as mine development proceeded under the company's revised proposal to manage lizard impacts.The fast-track expert panel asked the company to consider creating a "substantially larger, better-sized exclusion fenced sanctuary".In response, Santana offered to use the $10 million funding to build a 140-150 hectare pest exclusion fence, eradicate introduced pest mammals in the fenced area and maintain zero densities of targeted pests over 30 years for the benefit of Central Otago lizards.It also proposed to increase the number of southern grass skink that could be salvaged and relocated from approximately 800 to 1800, and establish a dedicated relocation site or sites for them.A few days earlier, on 21 September, the Department of Conservation provided legal submissions agreeing that killing hundreds of thousands of lizards was foreseeable, but challenged the idea that the scale of mortality was "not directly intended" or was "unavoidable"."The applicant's own evidence confirms that the deaths of many thousands of lizards could be avoided and that the mortality envisaged is directly intended as a consequence of the [Bendigo-Ophir Gold Project] proceeding," the submission said.The expert panel heard closing legal arguments, with Kā Rūnaka saying the company's evidence indicated the environmental and cultural impacts could not be adequately mitigated or avoided.A Santana Minerals spokesperson said detailed responses to the submissions would be filed in due course.A draft decision on Santana Minerals application was expected before Christmas, with a final decision in January.