Fidelma O'Kane from the Save Our Sperrins anti-gold mining campaign is our guest on episode 106. This chat was a massive eye opener for me. What I thought was a big gold-mining company picking on a small rural community was way off. The success of the Save Our Sperrins campaign is critical to close the door on gold mining prospects popping up all over the country. If the gold mine goes ahead in the Sperrins goes ahead it will be an ecological and environmental train wreck, and will jeopardise the lives of the people who live there now and the lives of future generations.

Follow Save Our Sperrins on facebook and listen to the horrendous plans that Dalradian Gold have in store for the people of the Sperrins. They plan to have 2 explosions in the area every day for 20 years and the plans include cyanid pits, mountains of waste rock and destruction of an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Notably minister for the environment in the 26 counties Eamonn Ryan signed the petition to stop the Sperrins goldmine, and is the minister in charge of granting current gold mining prospect license of which there are 2 planned for Cork and Kerry. Further, Dalraian used 2 Belfast based PR companies to further their plans and public image in the Sperrins; MCE and AV Brown. Interestingly one of the Directors of MCE Ben Mallon is a former DUP councillor and another Lindsay Millar is a former UUP Mayor of Mid and East Antrim Borough Council.

Episode available on all usual platforms. Thank you to Fidelma for being a guest on the show and thanks to the supporters of the show who are subscribed via patreon.com/rebelmatters.

Map of gold mining prospecting licences in the north:

https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/sites/default/files/publications/economy/mineral-prospecting-licence-map-council-boundaries.pdf

Map showing prospecting licences in the south:

http://spatial.dcenr.gov.ie/EMD_DOWNLOAD/Nov2021/PL_Map_Nov2021_A0.pdf