Dalradian Gold will undergo a public inquiry over its proposals to open a £750 million gold-silver-copper mine in Curraghinalt, County Tyrone.
SCRUTINY
Backed by investor Orion Resource Partners, the American company aims to extract 3.5m oz of gold deposit, 15,000 tonnes of copper and 850,000 oz of silver deposit from the site.
Dalradian applied for permission in 2017 to establish the mine 13 miles from Omagh in Greencastle before submitting revised proposals during 2019.
Northern Ireland minister for infrastructure Nichola Mallon said yesterday (29 June) that the application was “complex” with more than 40,000 representations submitted.
“I consider it important to have a public inquiry and report which has independently considered the views of stakeholders, including the local community and other government departments, and which will robustly scrutinise the information provided by all interested parties.”
Last year, Dalradian dropped plans to use cyanide to extract gold following complaints from opponents of the mine.
Protesters also say that the company aims to create a mine camp and that drilling will be deeper than its claims.
Dalradian has said that no smelting would be used and that the mine would be carbon neutral.
The company will also use the latest modern sorting technology underground to recover the maximum amount of mineral while removing the minimum amount of rock.
All water for operations would be sourced on site and recycled within the site.
OPERATIONS
Dalradian has been operating in Northern Ireland for 10 years and said it had spent £130m examining the gold-silver-copper deposits in Tyrone near the Sperrin Mountains.
The company has completed environmental, geological, engineering and economic studies on the deposit.
It has employed some 200 people and purchased goods and services from more than 400 Northern Ireland-based suppliers, including more than 50 small businesses from villages nearest the project.
The company has also given more than £500,000 to some 320 local groups.
President and chief executive officer Patrick FN Anderson added that the project, when operational, would support 1,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs, and generate £750m in new business for suppliers over its lifespan.
“Over 2,000 people have contacted the firm directly to express an interest in a mining career and we have begun a multi-million pound training programme to ensure that over 90% of our employees are locally based.
“We also plan to run supplier workshops to empower local businesses to qualify as our suppliers and expand their revenues and capacity.”
Dalradian Gold is a subsidiary of Ontario-based Dalradian Resources Inc.
Mr Anderson founded Aurelian Resources (mining in Ecuador) and U3O8 (South America).
He is also on the board of Canadian firm Strongbow Exploration exploring for lithium in Cornwall; Osisko Mining (Quebec) and group member O3 Mining.
Orion Resource Partners holds $6 billion under management, much of it from US-based institutions, and specialises in institutional metals and mining investment.