Westport Labour Cllr Keith Martin, who opposed the recent proposal to mine for gold in west Mayo, says the announcement by Mayo's Gold that the company was "actively and seriously considering'' a legal challenge to Minister for Natural Resources Eamon Ryan's decision to decline prospecting licences amounted to nothing more than "hot air and a refusal to face the facts of the matter."
Cllr Keith Martin, who led Westport Town Council's opposition to the mining in support of organizations like Mayo Environmental Group and Westport Tourism, says that Mayo's Gold has failed to accept that the environmental and tourism costs of mining far outweighed any amount of gold extraction.
According to the Labour councillor "The Donegal mining company wanted to mine 10,000 ounces a year from Cregganbawn alone. According to the Dept of Natural Resources there are 6g of gold per ton of rock to a depth of 80 metres. When you take into account that one once is equal to 28g you can see how much rock will have to be mined and to what depths to meet this target."
"This is large scale mining yet the company keeps referring to a "small scale project" and a "tourism mine". The company's website refers to "Geo-Tourism". This is a cynical attempt to portray this as an environmental project. These are nothing but weasel words designed to soften opposition to the project which is to be used as the thin end of a wedge to establish a full size mining operation close to Croagh Patrick."
In the local media Mayo's Gold has been talking about the seven dwarfs and a tourism mine while in the national papers they were talking about raising €25 million to set it up. That's some seven dwarf mine that costs €25 million! They expect to find a possible yield of €3.4 billion so you know that this is a serious operation designed to bring in whole-scale Gold mining by the back door into an environmentally sensitive, culturally and religiously important area with a massive tourism value as it is."
"This proposal to mine in the environs of Croagh Patrick and through 135 townlands of Mayo would be an environmental and tourism disaster for Mayo. The Minister has weighed up the pros and cons of allowing this company from Donegal to mine in Mayo and has come to the correct, reasonable and understandable decision that mining would not be suitable here. For Mayo's Gold to suggest that the decision was in someway incorrect is nothing more than hot air and a refusal to face the facts of the matter."
Sources
Sunday Business Post - Gold company considers action against minister
http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=IRELAND-qqqm=news-qqqid=35920-qqqx=1.asp
Dept of Natural Resources Report of gold amounts in Ireland
http://www.dcenr.gov.ie/NR/rdonlyres/03E171C9-4C17-46F0-8A9C-9B73F416CD4B/0/golda4pd.pdf
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