Tui mine

File:Top_of_the_Tui_mine_incline.jpg

Tui mine was in production by 1881.{{Cite web |date=23 April 1881 |title=Starting of the Te Aroha battery. Thames Star |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THS18810423.2.16 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}} An aerial ropeway on 12 towers was built in 1889.{{Cite web |date=19 June 1889 |title=Te Aroha. Te Aroha News |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TAN18890619.2.8.3 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}} A road was built in 1950, when the mine was said to be above {{Convert|1650|ft|abbr=on}} sea level.{{Cite web |date=1950 |title=Summary of reports by Inspectors of Mines |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/parliamentary/appendix-to-the-journals-of-the-house-of-representatives/1950/I/1856 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}}

In the 1960s, the Tui mine extracted copper, lead and zinc sulphides,{{cite web |url=http://www.otago.ac.nz/geology/research/environmental_geology/metals/sourcetext.html |title=Geological controls on metals in the New Zealand environment |publisher=University of Otago Geology Department |accessdate=2010-03-23 |first=Dave |last=Craw }} but had a problem with them being contaminated with mercury.{{Cite web |date=25 June 1975 |title=Norpac Mining winding-up. Press |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19750625.2.163.6 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}} The mine was abandoned in 1973, after the mining company Norpac Mining went bankrupt. The machinery was sold to the Mineral Resources (NZ) mine at Waihi,{{Cite web |date=24 November 1975 |title=Min. Resource call expected. Press |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19751124.2.167 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}} but waste, rock ore dumps and mine tailings were left behind. The tailings have significant amounts of zinc and cadmium. The mine tailings are stored behind a dam in a large pool-like area which has an oxidised, solid surface layer. The dam contains over 100,000 cubic metres of very acidic, sulphide-rich tailings. In 1997, there had been no natural plant recolonisation on the tailings for more than 20 years.{{Cite book

| publisher = Ministry for the Environment

| isbn = 0-478-09000-5

| last = Smith

| first = Ian

| others = Rowan Taylor (ed.)

| title = The State of New Zealand's Environment 1997

| contribution = Chapter 7.7 Pressures-from-mining

| url = http://www.mfe.govt.nz/publications/ser/ser1997/html/chapter7.7.html#Pressures-from-mining

| location = Wellington, N.Z

| year = 1997}}

File:Te_Aroha_mine_tailings.jpg

Waikato University had identified the problem of heavy metals contaminating water by 1984.{{Cite web |date=24 September 1984 |title=Mining wastes ‘a problem’. Press |url=https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/CHP19840924.2.38 |access-date=2024-04-18 |website=paperspast.natlib.govt.nz}} The tailings dam was considered to be unstable and is leaching various minerals, including heavy metals, into neighbouring waterways and this adversely affected the stream ecology. According to Environment Waikato, the Tui mine had three major environmental impacts;

1. The heavy metals lead and cadmium were leaching from the tailings dam into the Tunakohoia stream, which flows through land managed by the Department of Conservation and through the centre of the town of Te Aroha. Four years after the mine closed, the Te Aroha town water supply was found to be contaminated with heavy metals leaching from the tailings.
2. The separate Tui catchment was also contaminated with heavy metals from the tailings dam.
3. The abandoned mine tailings dam in the Tui catchment was at risk of collapsing in a moderate seismic event or an extreme weather event. That could have caused 90,000 cubic metres of mine waste to liquefy and to flow down the Tui stream near to Te Aroha.{{cite web |url=http://www.ew.govt.nz/Projects/Tui-mine/#about |title=About Tui mine |publisher=Environment Waikato (Waikato Regional Council) |accessdate=2010-06-03 }}

In 2007, the New Zealand Government announced that $9.88 million will be made available to clean up the site with the work scheduled to be completed by 2010.{{cite web

| last = Benson-Pope

| first = David

| authorlink = David Benson-Pope

| title = Abandoned Tui mine to be cleaned up

| publisher = New Zealand Government

| date = 2007-05-30

| url = http://feeds.beehive.govt.nz/release/abandoned+tui+mine+be+cleaned

| accessdate = 2008-02-23 }} In April 2010 it was reported that the estimated cost of the clean-up would be $17.4 million{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/3592589/Abandoned-mine-cleanup-cost-put-at-17-4m |title=Abandoned mine cleanup cost put at $17.4m |newspaper=The Dominion Post |date=2010-04-17 |accessdate=2010-04-21 |first=Kiran |last=Chug |url-status=unfit |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419162413/http://www.stuff.co.nz/environment/3592589/Abandoned-mine-cleanup-cost-put-at-17-4m |archivedate=19 April 2010 }} and in 2011 a sum of $16.2 million was allocated to the cleanup with most of the funding from central government.{{cite web|url=http://beehive.govt.nz/release/162-million-tui-mine-clean-gets-underway|title=$16.2 million Tui Mine clean up gets underway|date=19 October 2011|publisher=New Zealand Government (Beehive)|accessdate=19 October 2011}} Remediation of the mine site was completed in 2013, at a total cost of $21.7 million.{{cite news|url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/news/8621609/Lessons-to-be-learnt-from-toxic-legacy|title=Lessons to be learnt from toxic legacy|last=Leaman|first=Aaron|date=2013-05-02|newspaper=Waikato Times|publisher=stuff.co.nz|accessdate=2016-03-23}}{{cite web|url=http://www.doc.govt.nz/our-work/tui-mine/|title=Tui Mine remediation project|publisher=New Zealand Department of Conservation|accessdate=2016-03-23}}

• Mining in New Zealand
• Environmental issues in New Zealand

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{{Matamata-Piako District}}

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Category:Environmental issues in New Zealand

Category:Te Aroha

Category:Underground mines in New Zealand

Category:Environment of Waikato

Category:Tailings dams