Sperrin Mountains gold mine inquiry wraps up after 52 days of evidence

A long-awaited public inquiry into plans for a controversial gold mine in Northern Ireland has finally closed after 52 days in which dozens of experts dissected thousands of pages of evidence. Battle lines were first drawn over the future of a rural Co Tyrone village, and connected waterways running through counties Donegal and Derry to the sea, when Dalradian Gold arrived 17 years ago. In the time since, the multinational’s bid to mine in the Sperrin Mountains designated area of outstanding natural beauty amassed almost 50,000 objections, according to Belfast-based news and investigations website The Detail .

Dalradian Gold, owned by US investment firm Orion Resource Partners, said it will build an environmentally responsible mine to extract metals worth about £26 billion (€31 million). It also stated the project would create 350 jobs and boost the local economy. Backlash to the planning application saw the North’s former infrastructure minister Nichola Mallon call a public inquiry into the proposed gold, silver, copper and metal mine in 2020.

Opposition to the application came from a range of sources, including the local council, campaign group Save Our Sperrins and Ireland’s national trust, An Taisce. After two false starts, the Planning Appeals Commission (PAC) began examining the application at Omagh’s Strule Arts Centre in April. The process was originally timetabled for 20 days. Chaired by Jaqueline McParland with support from Cathy McKeary and Kenneth Donaghey, the commissioners soon doubled the schedule as discussions took longer than anticipated.

Protesters outside the Strule Arts Centre in Omagh ahead of the public inquiry into the controversial planning application. Photograph: PA Tempers frayed during hearings, with commissioners calling police more than once to remove people from the auditorium. Cormac McAleer, a Save Our Sperrins co-founder, and retired roads engineer, Douglas Hill, were also excluded by a PAC trying to reassert authority. Unlike the Omagh bomb inquiry, proceedings were not recorded and there is no official transcript of what was said.

Dalradian Gold hopes to mine 8.7 million tonnes of material to get 99 tonnes of gold, 48 tonnes of silver and 15,000 tonnes of copper over the 20 to 25-year life of its proposed Greencastle mine. To deliver that, the inquiry heard it planned to set 16 explosions a day, in two bursts, to extract potential ore. Firm representatives said this will be processed on site, and that it no longer planned to use cyanide, which is still referenced in the application.

The multinational’s plans could also generate up to £500 million (€591 million) a year for Britain’s king Charles. The Crown Estate, which has licensed Dalradian, legally owns the gold and silver beneath Northern Ireland. The inquiry heard the British monarch’s property portfolio, already worth billions, would take 4 per cent of the mine’s annual gold sales, if approved. Fermanagh and Omagh District Council opposed the application on a range of grounds, including environmental, community and tourism impacts.

Some locals said they lived in fear of potential impacts including air and water pollution, landslides, biodiversity loss and increased traffic. One asked if local residents were just “mere collateral damage”. Concerns were also raised about the effect daily blasts would have on a school, nursery and GAA club just over 1km from the mine as well as two historic Catholic churches and cemeteries. The application included requests to discharge potential pollutants into water supporting protected species such as Atlantic Salmon and freshwater pearl mussels, and to dig up peatland despite Government plans to conserve and restore them to hold greenhouse gases.

Dalradian said it would use 44,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate explosives, which it admitted would add nitrate pollution to already failing waterways. Police escorts for their delivery could cost the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) up to £3 million a year according to third-party estimates, although no official figures were provided to the inquiry and the PSNI did not take part. Through over 300 hours of discussion, Dalradian’s team of lawyers, global experts and workers outlined how it would deliver economic benefits while causing very little environmental damage.

Members of a group supporting the mine, the Silent Majority, were often absent from the inquiry. But they were represented by counsel Philip McAvoy and various representatives of planning consultancy Gravis Planning. Third party objectors, including locals who gave up work and holidays to be there, complained of “gaping holes” in evidence. The commission will now consider the evidence and report back to the North’s Department of Infrastructure by February 2028.