Suze Keith
Whare Kaupapa Atawhai
Conservation House
18-32 Manners Street,
fyi-request-32097-
PO Box 10420,
[email address]
Wellington 6011
doc.govt.nz
03 November 2025
Ref: OIAD-5593
Tēnā koe Suze
Thank you for your request to the Department of Conservation (DOC), received on 25 August
2025, in which you asked for:
1. I would like all correspondence, reports, documents, meeting minutes, file notes, etc, you
have on record regarding the proposal to develop 4 open cast mines, underground mine,
industrial cyanide processing plant, permanent waste tailings dam, engineered land forms
and miners caravan park in the Bendigo Ophir - Dunstan Mountains area by Matakanui Gold
/ Santana Minerals. Regardless of whether they are associated with fast track consenting or
any other process.
2. From July 19, 2025 until present day.
We have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA).
On 19 September 2025, we extended the timeframe for responding to your request to 17
October 2025, due to the substantial volume of information sought and the time required to
compile a response. On 17 October, you were advised that decision on your request had been
made, but additional time was needed to finalise material for release.
Santana Minerals is required to provide certain materials to the Department during the pre-
application phase for assessment. Some of the reports submitted are highly technical and
contain commercially sensitive information. In the interest of transparency, high-level summaries
of selected reports have been prepared and are being released under section 16(1)(e) of the
OIA.
The Department must carefully balance the release of official information with the need to
preserve Santana’s ability to complete and lodge an application. Our intention is to avoid
prejudicing that process.
The summaries, along with the remaining information within scope of your request (including
correspondence and additional documents), are listed in the document schedule below and
attached as Appendix A. Where applicable, email attachments are included beneath the
relevant email chain, unless they are addressed elsewhere in the document, have been
withheld in full, or have already been provided or declined in response to previous requests
covering the same subject matter.
Some information in the material provided is withheld under the following sections of the OIA, as
applicable:
• personal information, under section 9(2)(a) – to protect the privacy of natural persons,
including deceased people,
• commercially sensitive information, under section 9(2)(b)(i ) – to protect the commercial
position of the person who supplied the information, or who is the subject of the
information,
• information provided in confidence, under section 9(2)(ba)(i) – to protect information
where release would prejudice the ongoing supply of similar information.
• free and frank expression under section 9(2)(g)(i) – to maintain the effective conduct of
public affairs,
• confidential information, under section 9(2)(j) – to enable the Crown to negotiate
without disadvantage or prejudice.
In making my decision, I have considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1) of the
OIA and determined there are no public interests that outweigh the grounds for withholding.
Please note that email chains previously provided in earlier correspondence have been
excluded from this instalment to avoid unnecessary duplication and review.
You are entitled to seek an investigation and review of my decision by writing to an
Ombudsman as provided by section 28(3) of the OIA.
This letter (with your personal details removed) and attached documents may be published on
DOC’s website.
Nāku noa, nā
Siobhan Quayle
Director Regulatory Systems Performance
Department of Conservation
Te Papa Atawhai
2
Document schedule
Item
Date
Document description
Decision
1
19 July to 25
Email correspondence
Partial release
August 2022
2
14 August 2025 Word document:
Partial release
Technical Expert Assessment – Darcy Liddell
– Permissions Ad
3
22 August 2025 Word document:
Partial release
Fastrack - Matt Schmidt review of heritage
assessments
4
24 August 2025 Word document:
Partial release
MEMO - Fast Track – FTA107 – Bendigo-
Ophir Gold Project – freshwater advice – N
Dunn 240825 - DOC-10432564
5
Various dates
Technical report summaries
Summary
3
