Treasure Leitrim welcome support of Sligo County Council in fight against prospecting licence for North Leitrim

Treasure Leitrim has warmly welcomed the support of Sligo County Councillors who on Monday, December 6, unanimously backed a motion by Cllr Gino O'Boyle calling on Green Party Minister, Eamon Ryan, to refuse to grant a prospecting license to mining company Flintridge Resources (Galantas).

The motion also called on other local authorities to adopt a similar position as Sligo and Leitrim. The Sligo councillors join their Leitrim colleagues in stating their clear opposition to the company, whose predominant area of interest is gold mining, from being issued with a license.

For the past number of months community opposition has been continuously voiced to Minister Ryan’s intention to grant the licence, including the lodging of thousands of objections, rallies in Leitrim and Omagh and comments from local TDs who have also opposed the licence.

Concerns have been raised about the potential impacts on air and water quality, landscape, existing industries like tourism and agriculture and the negative effect on carbon emissions.

In a statement issued today, Treasure Leitrim said that "The vote of the Sligo councillors sends another message to Eamon Ryan and the Canadian mining company that the industry is far from welcome in the region." 

One of the spokespersons for Treasure Leitrim, Jamie Murphy, said “We would like to thank the Sligo councillors for standing with us and supporting Cllr O Boyle’s motion. We have always said that this is not just a Leitrim issue and it has the potential to impact on the wider region and further afield.

"We need to set down a precedent that it should not be accepted that these companies are granted licenses automatically. We need to show that it is possible for communities to oppose them and win. We have done it before with fracking and we are determined to do it again with this extractive, carbon-heavy, energy-intensive industry”.