West Coast mineral sands miner appoints Debbie Birch as chair, prepares to scale with new mine

The new chair of Westland Mineral Sands, Debbie Birch. (Image: Supplied)

Tue, 01 Apr 2025

A company pioneering mineral sands mining on the West Coast has appointed a new chair as it seeks consents for a major new mine.Westland Mineral Sands (WMS) is a group of companies that holds exploration and prospecting licenses covering thousands of hectares of West Coast farmland from which it wants to extract and export a concentrate containing minerals like ilmenite, garnet and gold, as well as rare earth elements (REE) needed for renewable energy technologies.The company has identified the critical minerals as a major new economic opportun...

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