A small West Coast surf club has had to drop its appeal against the mining of sand from its local beach, which is described as a world class surfing location.
West Sand Ltd has been granted resource consent to extract gold and other metals from sand mined at Cobden Beach, near Greymouth, in a six month trial.
The Kahuna Boardriders Club had lodged an appeal against the decision with the Environment Court, and the application was in the process of mediation.
But the club has had to revoke the application because it did not have enough money to see the appeal through.
The club's chairman, Jonathon Harris, says the estimated cost was about $20,000.
"We didn't have anything like that sort of money. We had applied for funding from the Ministry for the Environment and we didn't receoive any funding, so at that stage we had to pull out."
The mayor of Greymouth, Tony Kokshoorn, says he will do everything possible to stop the company getting further access after the initial six month period.
He says he would like to see the mining go ahead on another West Coast beach, but Cobden Beach needs to be protected.
