There has been talk of gold in the Sperrin mountains at least since the 1950s. During the late 1980s a number of companies did some prospecting but it was discontinued on the grounds that they would need to blast the rock. They couldn’t get a licence for explosives during ‘the Troubles’.
Dalradian, a Canadian gold mining company, arrived in the Gortin area of county Tyrone in 2009 and began mining lands at Curraghinalt. The company also mined the community, deliberately befriending people, including community leaders, to bring them on board with its plans.
The area now occupied by Dalradian is a designated Area of Natural beauty (AONB).There are eight such AONBs in the six counties. That means that this area is protected by law because of its natural beauty. It is meant to be a sanctuary -a place apart for local people to live in and for visitors to enjoy. The AONB sign indicates that the area is protected in law from any development that would destroy that natural beauty. It is illegal to interfere or damage this area.
There is a Mass rock here on top of the mountain dating to the Penal times when Catholic churches were closed by order of the foreign government. It is a sacred place of pilgrimage for locals who still gather there for prayer.
A local community group calling themselves “Save Our Sperrins” (SOS) has been in existence for several years since people became aware of the threat of pollution to the rivers and environment from the Dalradian mining company.
The Dalradian company was granted temporary Planning Permission (for a 3 year period) in January 2014 to extend its then 300-metre exploratory tunnel by a further 2 kilometres to extract a bulk sample of rock/ore. The Strategic Planning Division of the Department of the Environment (NI) granted this planning approval without requiring an Environmental Impact Assessment- on the grounds that it was time limited.
The following year (2015) Stormont Departments were reorganised. Planning was put into the Department for Infrastructure. The Environment was separated and put with the Department of Agriculture which became the Department for Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs (DAERA).
(Since The Ulster Farmers Union is one of the best resourced lobbies and supports factory farming etc, environmental protection plays a much lesser role for DAERA.)
Dalradian was listed on the Toronto stock market until 2018 when the value of its shares dropped and the company was taken over by Orion Mine Finance (New York). The original name was maintained, thereby avoiding any need to submit a new planning application in respect to its operations in the Sperrins.
Dalradian announced in 2016 that it planned a major goldmine, processing plant and Dry Stack Facility (i.e. a 17-storey high dump for waste/polluted rock & tailings) on top of Crockanboy hill which is on the other side of the hill from the Curraghinalt site and overlooks the picturesque village of Greencastle.
The planning Department for Infrastructure is dealing with Dalradian’s Planning Application for a goldmine and processing plant etc. The planning application was submitted in November 2017 and there have been Two Addendums (Oct 2019 & Nov 2020).
Discharge of effluent into waterways is regulated by NIEA (Northern Ireland Environmental Agency) that since reorganisation of Planning is part of DAERA. Therefore, as well as planning permission, Discharge Consent from DAERA is required. Regrettably (and most likely by design) NIEA has not just the role of protecting the environment but also has the role of advising big companies on how to submit applications in compliance with Regulations (in other words how to get round the environmental regulations).
There are many serious issues with this gold mining proposal:
1. Dalradian’s project would destroy some 30 hectares (75 acres) of bogland. Bogland is protected and, more recently, it is acknowledged that bog is the most effective store of carbon – even more effective that the Amazon forest.
2. Acid Mine Drainage (sulphuric acid) comes when this rock is exposed to water & oxygen.
3. Discharge from the mine and from the waste includes heavy metals: arsenic, mercury, cadmium, chromium, lead, zinc, copper, iron, nickel etc that would poison all the waterways, kill all salmon / fish in the local rivers down to Derry.
4. Particluate matter (particles) from the rock pollutes the air resulting in respiratory disease and cancer.
5. Geological Survey NI (Department of the Economy) data Reports show the underground rock of this whole area is high in radon. Blasting and crushing the rock releases the radon gas into the atmosphere, resulting in more cancers.
6. It is projected that the waste water treatment plant will require 540,000 litres per day. The water storage ponds will contain 142,000,000 litres of contaminated water – continually released into the rivers through a treatment plant.
7. Dalradian has applied for a Water Abstraction licence to abstract half a million gallons of water, from the bog north of their site, per day every day of the year for 20 years, The company has also applied for a connection for mains water for their mining operations. It is unclear how much water will be required from the public water supply. Dalradian would also remove water from streams – so that a number of streams are at risk of disappearing.
8. The rivers Owenkillew and Owenreagh are both protected Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) & Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) – These rivers are home to Ireland’s only critically endangered species -the fresh water Pearl Mussel (FWPM). These amazing creatures have a symbiotic relationship with salmon and trout. The preservation of FWPM alone should be sufficient reason to rule out Dalradian’s proposal immediately.
9. It is also estimated that Dalradian will use 3 million gallons of diesel on site – another major pollution and health issue. The physical and psychological damage to the health of people and animals/fish is incalculable.
Locals have expressed opposition to the Dalradian plans for mining in the Sperrins. More than 37,000 people have signed a Petition to have the mining stopped. They elected a councillor to the Fermanagh /Omagh District Council(FODC) to oppose mining. As a result of public opposition, Dalradian have given assurances that they will not be using the poisonous chemical cyanide. The local campaigning group are not satisfied because, they claim, whatever chemicals they use will do untold and irreversible damage to the water and to the atmosphere.
This area was once the centre of the old province of Ulster and in these valleys, Hugh O’Neill trained his army in the late 1500s. In AD 965 a battle was fought here between Ulster and Connacht. Today, a new battle is being waged.
The PSNI are frequent visitors and one of the local activists in the Save Our Sperrins (SOS) group has been arrested a number of times and taken in for questioning.
All the signs are that the battle with Dalradian is only beginning. The local protestors are determined to oppose Dalradian -no matter what it takes. The future looks like being tense in this once peaceful countryside.
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