June 2020: Aotearoa/New Zealand has only 30–50 species of butterflies but probably over 2000 moth species. About 85% of these moths are endemic, occurring nowhere else in the world. While most moths are nocturnal, we also have many tiny moths that fly by day, and are not attracted to light at night; there are many that we know almost nothing about.

Dr Robert Hoare, an entomologist with Manaaki Whenua - Landcare Research has recently joined The Centre for Minerals Environmental Research (CMER) team and has published a study of the moths of Mt Te Aroha - an important moth habitat in New Zealand.

December 2018: Mining is an important economic activity in New Zealand, and it has a long history that is often linked with important cultural developments. However, the process of mineral extraction inevitably affects the surrounding environment, and there have been few tools available to help mining companies and regulators assess and predict the environmental impacts of mining operations for New Zealand’s geology and environmental conditions.

The Centre for Minerals Environmental Research (CMER), led by Dr James Pope, CEO of Verum Group, has recently published comprehensive Mine Environment Life-cycle Guides for coal mines, mesothermal gold mines, and epithermal gold mines.

January 2018: CMER is involved with full-scale passive treatment of the Bellvue Mine site near Greymouth. This site discharges ~1-2l/s of Acid Mine Drainage with a pH of about 2.8 and elevated concentrations of Fe, Al, Zn and Ni. The system was completed just prior to Christmas 2017.

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December 2017: Verum Group and O’Kane Consultants researchers are gaining an international reputation for innovation in mine site environmental management, with collaboration or uptake of their processes now in the UK, Canada, and the USA. Waste mussel shell-based biogeochemical reactors are of particular interest, “We have been optimising and studying waste mussel shell bioreactors over the last few years in collaboration with the microbial genetics laboratory at the University of Windsor in Canada. These systems have been installed at full scale at two mine sites in New Zealand with a third system under construction and two more planned,” says Verum Group’s CEO, Dr James Pope.

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