Locals toughen stance against mining in west Cavan

“The message we want to get out there, and it to be clear; do not let these people come onto your property,” was the ardent and steadfast directive emerging from a meeting of the Cavan Mining Objection Group (CMOG) last week on mineral prospecting licenses issues in the local area.

The meeting in Belturbet took place after a decision by the Exploration and Mining Department (EMD) to grant licenses to the Australian mining company BMEx PTY Ltd in November last year.
The licenses granted to BMEx allows them to prospect an area, covering 80 townlands west of Belturbet Town, stretching along the Border with Northern Ireland and approaching Ballyconnell, for base metals including barytes, base metals, gold and silver.
Included are lands contained in the Lough Oughter and Associated Loughs Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and the UNESCO recognised Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark.
The group are now preparing to renew their focus by lobbying local landowners and farmers through representative organisations such as the Irish Farmers Association. Their plight has gained significant traction of late, with backing coming from Fermanagh resident and Deputy Leader of the Green Party in Northern Ireland Tanya Jones, as well as elected members of Cavan County Council.
Among those lobbied in Government are former Minister for Heritage, now Industry, Heather Humphreys, and Minister of State for Rural Affairs and Natural Resource Seán Kyne, as have local elected TD’s and MEP’s.
“We need to stand together, we need to work together to keep these people out of our lands, out of our community. We don’t want mining on our doorstep,” group member, Hein Ehbrecht told The Anglo-Celt after the Belturbet meeting had finished. “If you look at the Lough Oughter SAC summary, it describes it as an area of Drumlin landscape found nowhere else in Ireland on that scale. So it is unique, it is very important, and we don’t want it destroyed.”
Mr Ehbrecht had earlier rallied those present to the same accord, providing mock-ups of signage voicing objection to mining taking place locally, which had previously gone on display ahead of the recent Fine Gael National Conference at the Slieve Russell Hotel in Ballyconnell.
The site upon which the Sean Quinn-built and formerly-owned luxury four-star hotel and golf course is located is also situated within the prospecting area.
To those present, details from a letter of reply from EMD to CMOG said while the prospect licence holders have a right to access lands for the purpose of undertaking exploration activities, “best practice procedures” ensure a landowner’s permission must be sought in order to gain access. “This is also a stated requirement of the Exploration and Mining Division in granting a Prospecting Licence. It is our experience that licensees request such permission in advance of entering onto land to carry out prospecting activities and respect the wishes of landowner’s.”
To the department’s knowledge, “no complaints” have been received from landowners in respect of mineral prospectors accessing land.
The letter further states that exploration drilling does require prior permission from the EMD, who would undertake a “screening assessment” for significant environmental effects. If drilling is likely to have a “significant effect”, the project would cease to be an exempted development and the matter would be referred then for assessment by Cavan County Council.
A government economic review of the geoscience sector - which includes the mining industry - found it worth an estimated €3.3bn to the economy in 2016. Including indirect employment, the geoscience sector contributed 25,000 jobs in Ireland.
One speaker informed the group of the situation developing in the Netherlands following natural gas extraction in Groningen after earthquakes in the region, the most recent being a 3.4-magnitude shock early last month.
The Dutch oil and gas company NAM, set up by Shell and Esso in 1947 to mine what is one of the world’s largest gas fields, reacted to the quake by advising the Dutch government to cut back gas production substantially in the vulnerable field to the northern of the country.
“If it can happen there, the danger is it can happen here as well,” the speaker warned the meeting.
Further CMOG meetings are planned, with a deputation expected to join with the Save Our Sperrins (SOS) campaign in Co Tyrone, who themselves are facing a battle with gold mining company Dalradian or prospecting and mining rights awarded in the Greencastle area. The group, who in 2016 won a famous High Court tribunal victory on the disclosure of information around Dalradian’s 2013 planning applications, are among those expected to provide a presentation at the upcoming conference by environmental group Friends of the Earth later this year.
“The primary role of [CMOG] now and going forward is to disseminate information by explaining why people are objecting, what their concerns are, especially for landowners, and from an environmental perspective,” explained CMOG group member Patricia Boyle.
“But we also need to provide people with options, as to what they can do, if they don’t want to allow access to these mining companies to their lands, and their rights in doing that.”