Wellington, July 25 NZPA - Miners are mounting a major lobbying campaign in the run-up to the general election and calling for a re-think on support for exploration.

"It's an election year, and that always means that parties take another look at what they are doing and where they stand on issues," said Minerals Industry Association chief executive Doug Gordon.

The campaign will be given a high public profile at this year's Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) conference, which starts in Wellington at the end of August. It will be formally opened by Associate Energy Minister Harry Duynhoven on September 1.

The conference was at a pivotal time for the mining sector, said Mr Gordon.

"This event is being held in the capital in election year and we will be inviting politicians from all parties ... having them hear our voices, know our concerns, and most importantly, see the potential wealth creation on offer."

An example of this potential wealth was $100 million in deposits of lignite -- a low-energy coal. There was scope for state-owned miner Solid Energy to build a coal-to-liquid refinery in Southland and use the lignite to produce diesel fuel, industrial chemicals, and fertiliser.

A consultant geologist, Richard Barker, commissioned by the lobby to write a report on the industry, Natural Resource Potential of New Zealand, said in it: "The export value from just one small oilfield is equivalent to a quarter of the value of the entire dairy industry".

In December last year, New Zealand for the first time earned $1 billion in dairy exports over one month, but in the same month, the relatively small Tui oilfield, off the Taranaki coast, exported $254 million worth of oil.

Mr Barker said minerals and energy deposits had huge potential -- but making the most of them would require a lot of exploration investment.

"If you don't look, you don't find," he said.

"And if you don't find new sources, you can't maintain and expand the volume and range of the sector's output," Mr Barker said.

A 2002 NZ Institute of Economic Research study of the minerals industry said that within a decade the minerals sector could double its value to the New Zealand economy, create up to 25,000 jobs and lift overall exports by 4 percent.

"Longer term, the report indicated the sector could -- without mining national parks -- help boost gross domestic product by up to 2.9 percent, exports by 7 percent and create up to 35,000 new jobs," Mr Barker said.

A GNS scientist, David Darby, has previously predicted that up to 10 billion barrels of oil could be recovered from future significant discoveries around New Zealand.

The best potential for petroleum exploration is in the geologically "quiet" sedimentary basins to the northwest and southeast of the continental shelf, including the Great South Basin, where Dr Darby saw potential for billion-barrel oilfields. Two big consortiums have said they are willing to spend $1.2 billion exploring in the basin, south of Stewart Island.

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