Since 1972 a King Country mining operation has hoovered up hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of iron sand for export to Asian steel factories, reports Paul Charman.
Taharoa Ironsands
With a question mark over the future of iron ore as a commodity, the future of a King Country operation seems less certain.
Sitting on the coast about 90 minutes’ drive west of Ōtorohanga, Taharoa Ironsands Ltd (TIL) sits astride the largest deposit iron sands deposit in the country.
TIL digs up and processes the sand and pumps it as slurry to ships moored to the “Taharoa Terminal”, a buoy mooring 3.5km offshore.
The company has paid the equivalent of $150 million in royalties to iwi landowners since 2017, TIL chief Ian Goodacre told the Waitomo District Council at a District Plan hearing in June.
Taharoa ironsands village
But this week Goodacre declined to comment when The News asked him whether returns would reduce over the next decade due to the contracting China property market and other downward economic factors in Asia.
In an August article headed ‘Good while it lasted’, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has predicted that outcome for companies mining iron ore.
“Australia’s 20-year-long economic party, funded by China, may be drawing to a close, with consequences for federal and state budgets, superannuation returns and living standards generally,” the article said.
“The iron ore price is the most obvious pointer to China’s declining demand for Australia’s raw materials: it has come down from an extraordinary peak of US$144 a tonne at the beginning of January to a spot price of US$92 this month, and the fall is expected to continue.”
TIL seems to be publicity shy, with no telephone listings online.
Established by the New Zealand Government with the support of Ngāti Mahuta hapu and later owned by Australian Minerals firm Bluescope, the company was acquired by a company called TMIL, the parent of TIL, in 2017. Goodacre described the owners as a New Zealand hapu/family owned and operated business.
Taharoa Ironsands
He told the council Ngāti Mahuta are tāngata whenua and own the land on which the mine operates through the conduit called Proprietors of C Block Inc Ltd (Taharoa C). Taharoa C is a Māori incorporation established under Te Ture Whenua Māori Act 1993 and comprised of Ngāti Mahuta hapu. TIL has a lease with Taharoa C which allows it to use the land for mining purposes until 2062 and in turn it pays Taharoa C royalties.
The mine operates 24 hours a day seven-days-a-week, with a 10-hour maintenance shutdown every fortnight on a Wednesday.
It employs about 180 operational staff plus additional contractors. In 2023 about 80 per cent of mine workers were locally based Māori (Ngāti Mahuta), and 63 per cent of skilled roles filled by Ngāti Mahuta.
Most employees live either permanently or temporarily (during working days) in the nearby Taharoa Village, where TIL owns 75 houses and rents them to employees at a discounted rate.
The company also owns and maintains the community hall, school, shop, two large sports facilities and the fire brigade.
It provides a bus service, subsidises freight to the village store and has two helicopters on standby for emergencies.
TIL maintains most of the infrastructure supporting the village, including water, wastewater and rubbish collection. It also provides an education payment for travel and boarding for employees’ high-school aged children, at a cost of up to $18,000 a child annually.
