The company's chief executive, Matthew Hill, questioned why anyone would think the water would become contaminated:
"When you're not discharging any water, how could it possibly pollute any water?"
Meanwhile, a trustee with the Ngāti Tamaterā Treaty Settlement Trust, Liane Ngamane, who was not at the rally, said it was not opposed to mining, but wanted the environment protected.
This was why it is in treaty talks with the government about co-management rights, which include the area where the company is working, which she says aims to provide a long term solution.
She wants to make sure that previous mining problems, which she recalled a kaumatua told her about, do not happen again.
"One of our kaumatua, who... a number of times recounts swimming in the awa [river], [and that] they had to leave at a certain time when the old mine would release the contaminates... the cyanide etc.... into the awa. They knew to get out at a certain time."
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