Sam Neill says New Zealand goldmine supporters have threatened him with violence

The Australian mining company Santana Minerals is pushing to expedite a 85-hectare (210-acre) open-cast goldmine, called Bendigo-Ophir, in the Dunstan mountains, an area dubbed “outstanding natural landscape” by the Central Otago district council.

Santana has called the mine the country’s most significant gold discovery in 40 years, but it has sparked fierce opposition, including from Neill, who has joined forces with the local community group Sustainable Tarras.

They say the mine could be a fast track to environmental destruction and a threat to tourism in one of New Zealand’s best wine-producing regions.

“I stand by those views, and I’m glad I voiced them. What I wasn’t prepared for was the personal abuse I would come in for,” Neill said in a now viral video posted to his Instagram account.

Sustainable Tarras confirmed that members of the group had also received threats, some of which have been reported to the police.

In March, Neill told the Guardian how he believed “one of the most beautiful and remote places in the world” would be destroyed if Bendigo-Ophir wins fast-track approval.

The Bendigo-Ophir goldmine is among hundreds of applications being considered under the coalition government’s controversial fast-track law, which ignited protests in 2024 and nearly 30,000 public submissions on the bill.

Speaking to the Guardian, Neill said: “When I started to express misgivings about this mine and the potential damage it could do, I was completely blown away by the toxicity of the opposition that I met.”

Some of those personal attacks came from the resources minister Shane Jones, a self-avowed disciple of the Trumpian “drill, baby, drill” mantra, who described Neill in an interview last year with New Zealand’s the Post as “anti-Kiwi”.

Environmental disasters from poorly stored waste in tailings dams has long plagued the mining industry. A tailings dam will also be built for Bendigo-Ophir where poisonous waste, including arsenic, will be stored permanently.

“Central Otago is flourishing economically right now,” Neill said, referring to the region’s unemployment rate, the lowest in the country. “The last thing we need is a toxic mine upstream. It’s important to remember through all this what will be lost if a mine is allowed, not least being all those jobs, hospitality, viticulture, fruit growing.”

Neill has run a pinot noir vineyard in New Zealand’s most southerly wine region for 30 years. He added: “One of the great responsibilities we have in life is we should leave the planet better than we found it.”

Responding to Neill, Jones said in an interview by phone: “My focus is on households, opportunity, community growth, export, and jobs. Not unlike the UK, we have regions that have atrophied. Fortunately, a lot of the regions in New Zealand have the potential for mining.”

“The scale of mining in New Zealand is minuscule,” Jones claimed. “It’s akin to a beauty spot on the face of an attractive woman.

“There is a big difference between standing as a parliamentarian advocating for economic growth, and a Hollywood actor. The world I occupy is the real world. It’s not make believe Hollywood, thespian antics.”