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Speaker 1: Australian miners reckon they could make up to three point

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Speaker 1: eight billion dollars of pre tax profit from a planned

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Speaker 1: gold mine in Otago. The company reckons they could get

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Speaker 1: one point two five million ounces of gold from the

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Speaker 1: mine near Cromwell, and with the price of gold currently

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Speaker 1: at record highs, the profits are set to be huge.

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Speaker 1: Damien Spring is Santana Mineral's chief executive High Damien good Heeather,

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Speaker 1: how are you very well? Thank you? Do you reckon

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Speaker 1: the price of gold's going to hold?

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Speaker 2: Oh? Look, it's things to be holding at the moment.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's come off it's ultimate high of around

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Speaker 2: five thousand, eight hundred, but even at this price, it's

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Speaker 2: still in terms of the history of gold price, you know,

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Speaker 2: very high.

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Speaker 1: I saw somewhere that even if the price of gold halved,

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Speaker 1: you guys would still make a decent profit. Is that right?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right. You know, this is a goal project

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Speaker 2: that those international investors that are interested investing directing and

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Speaker 2: gold projects. It's set up and taking notice and it

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Speaker 2: is a high grade, high value gold mine. Thatt. We're

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Speaker 2: posing here and it's going to produce dividends both for

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Speaker 2: those investors but also new Zealand in terms of royalties

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Speaker 2: and jobs and services and such one.

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Speaker 1: How long before you start pulling it out?

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Speaker 2: Well, we've got to get our application into the fast

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Speaker 2: track process where and that is a minute and given

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Speaker 2: the powers of that piece of legislation in terms of

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Speaker 2: a fast tracked decision making process, it could be as

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Speaker 2: early as next year.

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Speaker 1: Oh you could actually be digging as early as next year,

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Speaker 1: could you?

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Speaker 2: That's right, that's what our time frame is, pending the

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Speaker 2: fast trek approved.

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Speaker 1: Okay, So how much damage are you going to do

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Speaker 1: though to the land in order to get this gold out?

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Speaker 2: Like?

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Speaker 1: How much digging are we talking about?

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Speaker 2: Are we talking about an open pit mine centered on

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Speaker 2: with a posit called Rise and Shine or RAS. It's

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Speaker 2: about nine hundred meters across up to sour hundred metered

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Speaker 2: sleep it's an open mind so yep, it's like any

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Speaker 2: other extractive in New Zealand and plenty of them. We

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Speaker 2: certainly dig up the ground, but we have a full

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Speaker 2: process of understanding what those depicts are, how we're going

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Speaker 2: to mitigate it. And of course before we start, we've

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Speaker 2: got a very sound closure plan. So we put it

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Speaker 2: back to a landform that is a commensurate with the

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Speaker 2: surrounding landscape.

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Speaker 1: Right, so when you're done with it, you basically make

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Speaker 1: it look nice again. How long before you're done with it?

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Speaker 2: Well, our current mind plan that we just released this though,

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Speaker 2: it's us mining for fourteen years.

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Speaker 1: OK.

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Speaker 2: But of course expiration continues, so we'll see what that

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Speaker 2: produces and maybe hopefully we find them more. Never know.

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Speaker 1: So, Damien, the locals who are objecting because of the

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Speaker 1: fact that they think it's going to look ugly have

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Speaker 1: maybe got a bit of a point, haven't they.

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Speaker 2: Oh, look, I think we've been engaging with affective parties

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Speaker 2: and neighbors and community groups right across the region of

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Speaker 2: Central Otago. They believe what they believe. We've engaged experts

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Speaker 2: in all the various areas, including landscape and visual and

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Speaker 2: we rely on those experts to wit within the framework

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Speaker 2: that we have here in New Zealand, and we believe

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Speaker 2: we've got a solution for those concerns.

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Speaker 1: Brilliant. Hey, well, you know you got to break eggs

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Speaker 1: to make an omelet, So best of luck to you.

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Speaker 1: That's Damien Spring, chief executive at Santana Minerals. For more

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Speaker 1: from hither Duplassy Allen Drive, Listen live to news talks

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