Santana lodges mammoth fast-track application

Santana CEO Damian Spring looks over the proposed mine site in 2024. (Image: BusinessDesk)

Mon, 03 Nov 2025

Would-be Central Otago gold miner Santana Minerals has lodged 9,400 pages of supporting material for its fast-track consent application, with a view to a decision before June 30 next year.Said by its promoters to be the largest gold discovery in New Zealand in 40 years, the proposal is primarily for an open-cast mine at the southern end of the Dunstan Ranges, near the 19th-century gold mining settlement of Bendigo.The project has attracted increasingly vocal criticism from local groups, who fear its environmental impact on an area of low-qualit...

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