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THIS SUMMER, eleven years' deposits of gold and silver were located in the Cavanacaw hills on the outskirts of Omagh town, County Tyrone, the go ahead was given for an open cast mine. The announcement of planning approval by the Department of the Environment was accompanied by extravagant speculation by the company on the mine's impact on local employment and prosperity.
Omagh Minerals, ``hoped'' to create ``up to 75 jobs'' probably later next year when mining starts. A company director was ``convinced jewellery production and tourism would bring as much benefit to the area as the mine''. The Northern Ireland Tourist Board agreed with Omagh Minerals that ``the mining and extraction process will also provide a unique industrial tourism experience''.
Ireland and gold have a long history. In his study The Story of the Irish Race Seamus McManus points out that Celtic Ireland was not just rich in gold but ``the country above all others in Western Europe that was distinguished for its gold wealth''. Gold also figures in the radio essays Ancient Circles by American commentator, Bob Kelly. The spiritual belief system of Celtic peoples first came under attack when the Roman Empire began to expand northwards, Kelly argues. ``By 6AD the Roman armies had successfully invaded France, Switzerland and Celtic Britain, their final destination was the Celts sacred island of Ireland, their motive was one that would become familiar in world history, the lust for gold.''
Ironically, while the Roman conquest of Ireland was never to materialise, contemporary Ireland has once again become the focus for international gold speculation. In this new era of mineral exploitation, over 750 prospecting licences have already been granted in Ireland, involving more than 50% of the island's land mass, to mining companies operating throughout the 32 Counties. Around 300 of these licences have been issued specifically for the pursuit of gold, many to companies linked to multinational conglomerates such as Rio Tino Zinc and Ennex International.
It is not the sudden discovery of previously unknown sites that is behind the current international interest in Ireland, but changes in the gold market which have rendered previously unprofitable low grade gold deposits, lucrative for exploitation. This, together with the development of a cost-cutting method of recovering low grade deposits, has exposed Ireland to some of the world's largest gold diggers.
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Omagh is a rural town in County Tyrone. Its quiet hills and patchwork of farms seem remote from the scenes of exploitation of black workers in the goldmines of South Africa, the desecration of Native American sacred lands in South Dakota, USA or the environmental destruction of rainforests in Latin America. Yet, as well as gold deposits, Ireland has two further attributes to attract the international mining community. Firstly high levels of long-term unemployment leave communities vulnerable to the vaguest promise of jobs and a workforce ripe for exploitation. Secondly, there are inadequate environmental safeguards, which will allow the mining company to take its profits and run, leaving the local community to pick up the tag for the real long term environmental cost.
Omagh Minerals is headed by Canadian Jack Gunter, formerly of Rio Tino Zinc and described as having ``35 years experience in international mining''. Geology expert, Garry Phelan, one of the Riofinex employees who identified the original deposits in the 1980s is also part of the Omagh Minerals team. Indeed the only director of the company with connections in the Six Counties, is local entrepreneur, Kevin Martin, currently chairperson of the hygiene products firm, Naturelle and director of the Omagh Enterprise Company and Tyrone Economic Development Initiative.
Despite the media hype, local people remain sceptical about the company's projections. Planning permission has been granted despite fierce opposition from residents, farmers, local businesses and Omagh District Council. Deposits at the Cavanacaw site are of such poor quality that for gold to be recovered it must be `leached' from the host rock using massive amounts of toxic chemicals and leaving enormous amounts of contaminated waste. A leaflet produced by Omagh Gold Mining Action Group campaigning against the mine, depicts the proverbial pot of gold but for the people of Omagh the pamphlet warns environmental pollution is ``the other end of the rainbow''.
Sinn Féin spokesperson Barry McElduff, who has helped spearhead local opposition to the mine, said inflated projections of the employment potential of the mine bear little relation to reality:
``Public relations people often exaggerate the economic contribution of a proposed mine by either citing figures of total job expectancy, of which only a few would be local, or by exciting the media with the promise of an economic watershed for the area. In reality, once construction of the site is completed, the only employment likely to be available to local people is a few low paid, unskilled labouring jobs.''
McElduff is equally sceptical about the wider impact on local prosperity. Open cast mining, he points out, is a dirty and dangerous business. ``The notion that this will somehow become a tourist attraction is totally spurious. Long term pollution generated at the site will stifle the area's tourist potential not enhance it.''
In her study, Gold Mining and the Irish Environment, American Anthropologist and mining spokesperson for Earthwatch, Lesli O'Dowd describes the leaching process which will be in operation at the Cavanacaw site:
``It involves crushing ore into marble-sized pieces and stacking it in huge heaps over an impermeable base of plastic, asphalt or compacted clay. Heaps may range in size from just a few thousand square feet to dozens of acres and may be as high as 70 feet. They may contain anything from a thousand to two million tons of crushed rock. On top of these gravel mountains, ordinary garden-type sprinklers are positioned. These wet the heaps with concentrated cyanide solution which percolates down through the heap, dissolving the gold particles (together with other minerals) and is collected as `pregnant solution' in ponds at the base of the heap where it is then piped to tanks for further treatment and precipitation.''
The process generates massive amounts of contaminated rock and chemical waste which are dumped in ``tailings ponds'', vast reservoirs of toxic material. The Tynagh mine in County Galway which operated for 15 years, generated a tailings pond covering over 160 arces of land.
Omagh Minerals are, not surprisingly, playing down the environmental hazards of their proposed operation.
Garry Phelan is ``satisfied that safety and land rehabilitation procedures will be of the highest standard''.
Cyanide will be destroyed on site and waste metals removed twice a week in sealed containers for disposal at a Belfast plant. ``We are using environmental consultants from Tara lead and zinc mines on the banks of the Boyne.'' Tara, Omagh Minerals insists has a ``world class environmental system''. Despite reassurances local people insist that potential for a major disaster remains extremely high.
Cyanide is one of the most toxic and highly corrosive chemicals. It is hazardous to human beings at even tiny concentrations. But high concentrates of cyanide solution are used in the leaching process. It is usually transported in a dry, white crystalline form which reacts quickly and violently with water. One crystal, the size of a grain of rice, is sufficient to kill instantly if swallowed. A heap covering one acre, might use up to 6.5 tonnes (14,500 gallons of solution) of sodium cyanide every day.
At Galway's Tynagh mines, eight tonnes of sodium cyanide were used every week in the extraction of silver, and every day workers collected dead birds, including swans and ducks, from open cyanide ponds and disposed of them. In a similar mining operation in Nevada, Texas, over 900 birds were poisoned in a single month.
The presence of cyanide is only one of a number of hazards associated with mineral leaching. The process generates massive amounts of toxic waste. Thousands of tonnes of contaminated crushed rock, of which gold is only one thousandth of a percent, is dumped on site. At Silvermines, County Tipperary, repeated attempts to secure waste material at a 147 acre tailings area by revegitation, has failed. The site is so toxic nothing will grow. Recently black dust clouds from the tailings rose 50 feet in the air choking the landscape and contaminating local farms.
According to environmentalist Lesli O'Dowd, as well as cyanide and dust contamination, the heavy metals released during the leaching process present a long-term environmental problem. O'Dowd argues: ``Of even more concern than cyanide, is the presence of toxic metals in effluents and tailings generated by the crushing and leaching of ore. Many metals besides gold are released from the rock and these can make their way into surface waters, soils and vegetation by means of dust blows or drainage discharges.''
O'Dowd points out that heavy metals in such unnatural concentrations can pose enormous long-term environmental problems. These metals are extremely poisonous even in small quantities, threatening livestock and wildlife if their water or food becomes contaminated. Human health is also at risk, either by direct contamination or indirect consumption of contaminated animal products.
As Richard Harkinson of Minewatch points out, the toxic waste generated by the process is not even stable but in a continuing state of chemical reaction. In even mildly acidic environments, like peaty areas, exposure to normal weathering can lead to further pollution, generating poisons such as sulphuric and prussic acid, highly explosive and deadly if inhaled. In one abandoned American mine, rock waste at the site was found to be more acidic than battery acid.
According to O'Dowd, Ireland's sensitive environment is particularly unsuitable for the kind of mining operation proposed in Omagh, especially where local communities depend heavily on a healthy environment which sustains livelihoods in tourism, agriculture, forestry, aquaculture and angling. Irish climate with its heavy rainfall and strong winds increases the potential for contamination. O'Dowd argues:
``In areas like Ireland where the climate is very wet, surface run-off or heavy rainfall can cause holding ponds to overflow. Projects sited in mountainous or steeply sloped areas are particularly prone to flash flooding and periodic discharges of cyanide may be unavoidable. In very windy places, cyanide salts can be wind borne causing contamination of adjacent water and vegetation which turns blue and dies.''
As a recent American study concludes, air-borne and water-borne contaminants can spread the impact of mining over a much wider area than may have been envisaged when the project was initiated, effecting surrounding agricultural land as well as contaminating local rivers and waterways. In South Dakota surface gold mining has been identified as the major factor in the destruction of 90% of the region's trout streams over the last 20 years.
Last month, in one of the worst environmental disaster associated with the leaching process, 400 million gallons of cyanide-contaminated waste flowed into the Essequibo, Guyana's major river, threatening the local population who rely on the river for their drinking water, as well as wildlife and fish. The highly poisonous residue in the mine's tailings reservoir escaped when the dam separating it from the Omai river collapsed. The Omai flows directly into Guyana's main river system. ``It's the environmental disaster they said would never happen.'' said Tom Wilmot of the Omagh Mining Action Team. He describes the gold mining project as ``an environmental time bomb'':
``The reality is that this accident could occur in Omagh with the same consequences for the Foyle system. The goldmining operation at Cavanacaw should be radically reviewed following the disaster in Guyana. The risk the project poses to local people, to the water and fish, as well as alternative development potential in the area cannot be justified. Rio Tino Zinc, the crown estates and a handful of local businessmen should not be allowed to gamble with our lives and future livelihoods.''