He appealed to the High Court.

Meanwhile, the Environment Court ordered the company to pay $50,000 to Clapshaw and $450,000 to Manuhiri Kaitiaki. Other parties in the case, including Auckland Council, the Department of Conservation, Forests and Birds and several community groups, have paid their costs out of court.

RNZ understands it includes at least $100,000 in additional payments.

Clapshaw chose to fight the company’s mining bid after discovering that the company had breached the terms of its previous resource agreement by digging deep seabed trenches.

The Environment Court found that evidence provided by the company on the environmental effects of mining had been “in the dark”, “inconclusive” and even “incorrect” in the past.

He also noted the effects on mana when they could not be mitigated.

Clapshaw described the case as protracted, complicated and “acrimonious” at times.

He sought $96,000 in costs he incurred hiring experts to analyze the information and nothing to cover his time.

The court awarded him $50,000, which he said he was satisfied with.

“In terms of the overall return, if I were to look at the investment of both time and energy and resources and the loss of opportunity, it’s a fraction, but it’s something I’d do again.”

The other sum, awarded to the Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust, was $100,000 for expert witness costs and another $350,000 to cover other costs.

Part of the cost was related to a last-minute attempt by McCallum Bros to have the trust annulled in the case on the grounds that it was a commercial competitor.

The court called the attempt a “relevant aspect” of the case because the matter had been dealt with many weeks earlier. The request was “without merit” and should not have been made in the final days of the case, the court found.

The Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust received 57% of the $795,000 in costs it applied for and Clapshaw 52%. Environmental law firms cite 25 to 33% of actual costs as more typical.

The court’s costs decision noted that McCallum Bros called the amount sought by the Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust “unprecedented” if awarded by the court.

However, the court’s decision said what stood out in the case was the belated attempt to remove the trust from the case.

McCallum Bros chief executive Shayne Elstob would not comment on the costs decision but has previously spoken about the legal process in select committee hearings on the fast-track bill.

The company’s attempt to get consent to mine has been a “horizontal” process, Elstob said.

“When all is said and done, this process could take more than seven years and has come at a huge cost to the business,” Elstob told the committee.

“Had we known what we would have been dealing with through the current Resource Management Act process, I’m really not sure we would have applied in the first place. We would have invested our money elsewhere.”

Until the resolution of the company’s appeal to the High Court, it operates under a temporary agreement with the consent of the parties involved in the case.

Clapshaw said there had been breaches of the temporary arrangement, with more trawling taking place than was allowed. The company acknowledged this and put the error down to an incorrect spreadsheet, he said.

In a letter seen by RNZ, a McCallum Bros staff member told Auckland Council the error was due to an incorrectly configured spreadsheet.

“That says a lot about competence, because for most people counting something eight times in a 30-day period doesn’t really require the work of an Excel spreadsheet.”

The company also requested that the agreement be included in proposed fast-track legislation that could allow projects rejected by the courts to proceed.

The expert advisory group recommended it be included, but did not make the final list of 149 projects selected by the Cabinet.

Another McCallum Bros project, which aims to mine up to 8 million cubic meters of sand from Bream Bay, further up the coast from Pākiri, has been given the green light for fast track review.

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