Anti-mining protesters will march on Hauraki District Council today in continued opposition to the mining in Karangahake Gorge.

Protect Karangahake has planned a protest in Paeroa this lunchtime to coincide with a New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals representative meeting with Hauraki District councilors.

Anti-mining protestors are making their feelings clear this lunchtime.

NZMP is the government department that issued New Talisman Gold Mine a mining permit to incorporate the Rahu exploration permit into the existing one.

Lodged in August, the application for the 390-plus hectare extension is beside its current mining permit in the Karangahake Gorge which includes almost 300 hectares of land, bringing the total area to almost 690.

The group will gather outside the Hauraki District Council offices and a delegation from the group will go in to the meeting with the council and New Zealand Petroleum and Minerals at 1pm.

Coromandel Watchdog manager Ruby Powell says the group will be releasing new evidence they have received and announcing subsequent legal actions.

Protect Karangahake member Sabine Hartmann says the group want to make sure NZPM knows about the group's opposition to mining in the Karangahake area and to remind Hauraki District Council they aren't happy about the lack of consultation.

Sabine says: 'We do not want to see the gorge's wonderful recreation opportunities or rivers ruined, mining underneath our homes or to go through the distress mining has brought the community of Waihi.

'The resource consent granted by HDC is just the thin end of the wedge of New Talisman's mining plans for the area.”

Sabine says New Talisman have announced plans to start ‘small scale mining' this year via their website.

They will mine under the ‘exploration' resource consent granted by HDC for 20,000m3 of ore a year, with a plan to move into fuller production.

There is also a suggestion that they always saw Rahu ridge as a natural extension of their mine in the Karangahake Gorge.

'We simply cannot trust New Talisman and do not want them in our community,” added Sabina.

'When they were exploring on the Rahu ridge they hit water sources multiple times - some of the drill holes continue to leach years later even after New Talisman were asked to fix them.

'We are very clear that we will not let Karangahake become then next Waihi and after the meeting today we hope our Council will wake up and start supporting us before it is too late.”

New Talisman Gold chief executive Matt Hill told SunLive this month that the company has held the highly-prospective Rahu permit for the last 19 years, but believes the area has similar potential to Talisman and is the focus of continued exploration.