Council seeks meeting over Belturbet prospecting

Cavan County Council will write to and seek a meeting with an Australian-based mining company and representatives from the Department of Communications over a decision to grant prospecting licences for minerals west of Belturbet and along the Border.

Fianna Fail's Sean Smith demanded that members of the Cavan Mining Objection Group (CMOG), who collected almost 250 signatures provided with a submission against the issuing of licences, would also be invited to attend any meeting to express their concerns also.

Last November Minister for Communications and Natural Resources Denis Naughten granted BMEx Pty Ltd prospecting licences covering an area that incorporates a total of 80 townlands stretching from Drumlane to Ballyconnell and along the border with Northern Ireland.

Among those areas included are those that fall within the protected Lough Oughter and Associated Loughs Special Area of Conservation (SAC), as well as the UNESCO recognised Marble Arch Caves Global Geopark.

Several well-attended public meetings were held, which heard from people including local farmers whose lands could be affected, all of whom voiced their objections to the prospecting licences.

While the prospecting licences do not permit mining, if exploration results in the discovery of a viable deposit, the company may make a separate application for a mining licence.