Objections are flooding in against mining licence

Opponents of mining in Connemara have inundated the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment with objections to plans to issue a prospecting licence in Ballyconneely and Roundstone.

The Exploration and Mining Division (EMD) of the Department has confirmed it has received some 619 submissions from the public on Toronto-based MOAG’s plans to search for minerals in Connemara.

The closing date for submissions was July 6, and Department officials are mulling over the objections, and compiling a report. Richard Bruton is the relevant minister but a decision about whether to grant the prospecting licence, according to the Department, has been delegated to Junior Minister, Sean Canney, an Independent Galway East TD.

A local committee (Protect Connemara – Keeping Ballyconneely and Roundstone Bog free from Mining) has urged people to lobby Minister Canney to turn down the request for a prospecting licence.

“We are trying to keep the pressure up. We want to stop it now – we need to nip this in the bud,” said Terri Conroy, a member of the emergency committee of the grassroots group that formed to oppose mining in the picturesque area.

Ms Conroy said the Ballyconneely/Roundstone group has linked-up with another recently formed committee, Keep Mining out of Joyce Country, which organised a well-attended meeting in Maam late last month to oppose plans to renew a prospecting licence to a different Canadian mining company, BTU Metals Corp, in an area stretching from Killary Harbour to Lough Corrib.

She said that as well as prospecting for gold and silver, MOAG want a licence to search to find Molybdenum.

“It’s a mineral that’s used to harden steel, and in missiles and wings of aircraft but the price is dropping and there are a lot of Molybdenum mines closing down around the world because they’re not viable,” she said.

Ms Conroy said it was not true that mining would bring jobs to Connemara.

“We can only go on past experience. MOAG has been in Carna for the past two years and they’ve employed three people, part-time, which is one and a half full-time jobs. There are only 1,500 jobs in mining in Ireland. How many jobs will be lost, in tourism, through the destruction of the environment?

“I don’t think people realise what it entails. It’s open-cast mining and use of chemicals. We are campaigning to protect our livelihoods, culture, heritage, farms, water and air, health and wellbeing, as well as our beautiful environment,” she said.

Protect Connemara will hold an annual general meeting next Thursday (August 22) in Ballyconneely Hall, where officers will be elected. The AGM is open to the public, and more volunteers are encouraged to attend, but politicians will not be allowed to speak at the event. The group will then host another public meeting – where everyone will be allowed to air their views – when new officers are in place.

The Department insists that a prospecting licence relates to prospecting only, and does not confer mining rights.