New Talisman Gold Mines has hit back at detractors saying the company is confident of its application for resource consents.

A statement reveals the consents were sought by the company from Hauraki District Council for exploration and bulk sampling operations and fell within the council's own policy for non-notified applications.

New Talisman Gold Mines say the current project is similar to previous phases of exploration in Karangahake Gorge.

Last week community group Protect Karangahake lodged a claim with the Auckland High Court challenging the granting of resource consents for planned gold mining activity in the gorge.

The group's submission to the High Court claims there was a lack of public consultation and inadequate assessment of how recreation would be affected in the area.

However, New Talisman chief executive Mathew Hill says they intend to vigorously defend the decisions reached by the Hauraki council and its advice from legal counsel on consenting matters.

The company understand the Hauraki council was advised by an independent specialist company on whether the application should be notified or not.

The independent company's report considered that conservation, visual, amenity, recreation, heritage and cultural values would be maintained during the project.

It also considered appropriate measures would be put in place to ensure noise, vibration, hazardous substances and traffic effects would be avoided, remedied or mitigated.

Accordingly it recommended the application be non-notified.

Mathew states the current project is similar in scope to previous phases of exploration undertaken by the company in 2003/2004 and again in 2005/2006.

'The only difference is that in this case ore samples will be removed from the underground workings,” says Mathew.

'Worker numbers, equipment usage and vehicle movements will be very similar to previous operations.

'It's important to note that no adverse effects were reported during either of these previous phases.”

Mathew says the granted consents are for a limited bulk sampling operation restricted to four truck movements plus one single blast per day. They also require no water discharge into the river system.

He adds that New Talisman is not seeking to undertake surface exploration as the company is only operating within the existing underground mine shafts.

Because the operations will be underground and within the footprint of the historic mine, the impact on flora and fauna is minimal, he says.

'The Hauraki District Council and its independent consultant as well as the Department of Conservation recognised this.

'That is why they granted the access agreement and resource consent applying some of the toughest environmental controls in the world.”

New Talisman believes information being supplied to the public by Protect Karangahake misunderstands the scale and nature of the intended bulk sampling and exploration operations.

Mathew says they extended an offer to the founder of Protect Karangahake to meet and explain the scale of its proposed operations.

'Regrettably our offer met with a point blank refusal to meet and an offensive and abusive response,” he explains.

'The request for a judicial review appears to be based on an earlier conceptual prefeasibility plan.

'That plan bears little relation to the limited bulk sampling operation for which consents were sought and granted.”

The Talisman mine has been mined on-and-off over the last 100 years and has been a significant gold producer during that period. New Talisman has held the permit for over 20 years.

Mathew believes from both an environmental and economic perspective, the project is positive for the area.

The company's view is that mining and the community 'can work in harmony” and find balance between protecting the environment while providing employment opportunities to the community.

'The benefits from re-establishing exploration activity in the area are potentially significant,” he says.

'Direct economic benefits include the total expenditure of approximately $1.8 million as well as employment for approximately six people with wages and expenditure spent locally as part of general operational business expenses.”