Candidates pledge support for gold mining ban at Leitrim hustings

At the event in the Glens Centre in Manorhamilton candidates for the Sligo-Leitrim with were asked if they would support a ban on gold mining with all the present candidates agreeing that they would support a national ban.

This section of the evening was attended by Marian Harkin, Bláithín Gallagher, Martin Kenny, Nessa Cosgrove, Eammon Scanlon, and Graham Monaghan. Frank Feighan and Marie Casserly arrived later in the evening. 

The issue of gold mining in Leitrim has become a point of concern for locals and activist groups in the county with two prospecting licences being granted in the county in 2022 to Flintridge Resources, a subsidiary of Canadian Gold mining company Galantas. 

“I think the more we know about the method of extracting gold, the more we realise that there is no cost effective, safe way under this open cast mining, and while that remains the case, and for many other reasons, I don't ever see a way where it is going to be allowed to happen by communities in their communities and I would suppose their stand on that,” said Paddy O’Rourke, Chairperson of Leitrim county council and Fianna Fáil candidate.

Local activist group, Treasure Leitrim, held a protest along with other anti-ming groups around the country last week in Cavan outside a blacktie dinner dance held by the Irish Mining and Quarrying Society. 

Green party candidate Bláithín Gallagher outlined the need for land owners not to let gold mining companies onto their land to carry out prospecting, “I can honestly say that if gold was a critical mineral then there wouldn’t be five hundred years of it above ground so it is not a critical mineral … I can’t see us needing gold mining licences and I can’t see gold mining licences granted and I will be totally opposed to them,” she said.

Ms Gallagher was asked by members of the crowd and Aontú candidate Graham Monaghan to defend Eamonn Ryan, ex-leader of the green party and minister for Environment’s decision to grant the two prospecting licences in the region in 2022.

She replied that the licences were for prospecting land for both critical minerals and other minerals, like gold too, which means they were difficult to block. She also highlighted the fact that prospecting licences are not mining licences, and that she would stand against the prospect of mining licences being granted.

Sinn Fein’s Martin Kenny TD said he would stand with a ban on gold mining, adding that the region would not see any good from the practice. 

“The method of extracting the mineral here is as much the issue as whether the mineral is worth a huge value because the value of that mineral won’t be anything to anyone in this room or to anyone in North-Leitrim, it's going to be shareholders in multinational corporations,” he said.

Eammon Scannon and Graham Monaghan also outlined their support for a ban on gold mining, along with that all the candidates also outlined their support for a ban on the use of cyanide in the extracting industries in Ireland.

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