No mining in Northern Ireland

We all want to have good health, clean drinking water and a flourishing countryside. But your attempt to open up Northern Ireland for dirty mining will put all that at risk.

Caoimhe Archibald’s Department for the Economy wants to award SEVEN licenses that would give big mining companies the right to explore and drill for minerals such as gold, copper and diamond in County Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone. And one of those companies is Dalradian, who are pushing hard to build a toxic gold mine in the Sperrin Mountains.

Mining is a filthy business. It pollutes our water and land with chemicals, harms our health and destroys our beautiful ecosystems. If all the licenses are awarded, approximately 12% of Northern Ireland’s land would be opened up for mining exploration across Country Armagh, Fermanagh and Tyrone. The North would become a sacrifice zone while filthy mining companies make billions in profit.

For these companies, this was always the plan for Northern Ireland. In 2015, the Dalradian CEO said “I’m not talking about a single mine. We are working on building a mine camp here [in Northern Ireland].”

We, the undersigned, call on the Minister Caoimhe Archibald to reject the following applications and stop even more corporations who want to mine, regardless of the damage it does to our health, and to our climate: