No mining Croagh Patrick

Croagh Patrick will not be mined

Environmental group remains sceptical, as gold prospecting attempts begin in Louisburgh

Neill O’Neill

A COMPANY involved in a proposal to mine gold near Louisburgh have ‘categorically’ stated that they have no intention of attempting to mine on Croagh Patrick.
Talk in the locality in recent weeks has centred on a proposal by a company called Mayo’s Gold  to open a niche tourism gold mine in Cregganbaun, and an interpretative visitor centre in Louisburgh.
This has re-ignited the controversy of 20 years ago when several mining companies attempted to open commercial quantity gold mines on the side of Croagh Patrick and in the Cregganbaun/Doolough region. However, speaking to The Mayo News last week, Wilson Robb, Chairman of Aurum Explorations – the geological consultancy firm tasked with assessing the suitability of the proposal in the area – was firm in his rebuttal of the theory that this would be a commercial mining venture.
“The plan at the moment is a tourism venture by a private Irish company called Mayo’s Gold. The principal idea is to form a national tourism product based around a show mine, producing a small amount of gold. This is not a commercial venture. Basically, tourists come to visit and see the process where rocks are extracted and crushed and small quantities of gold are shaken out. We hope to have a shop and an interpretative centre in Louisburgh where the gold will be made into jewellery by Irish designers and sold locally.
“Croagh Patrick is not part ofthis plan. It is on a list of places that are excluded from exploration and has not been a consideration of ours. In fact, we would like to get ‘international geopark status’ for the region, which would brand it as a geological area of international significance.
However, Mayo Environmental Group, who successfully opposed attempts by three companies to open gold mines on Croagh Patrick and in the Cregganbaun/Doolough region in the eighties, say they remain sceptical and opposed to any attempts to mine in this part of the county.
At a meeting in Westport last night (Monday), between the company and the environmental group, both sides told each other of their plans and concerns, but there was no firm agreement on what would happen next and no sign that either side would be backing down.”
“They seem sincere about the nature of their proposal,” Paddy Hopkins said last night, “but even if we believed every word they said we know from prospecting in this region in the past that there is more gold in Cregganbaun than in the Reek and that it would be difficult for a company with shareholders to hold back from land filled with gold when they are the sole holders of a licence to mine there. It could start as a tourism venture but it would be difficult to ignore the rich deposits of gold in the ground out there once they get going, and the chance to enrich themselves might prove hard to resist.
“We have made contact with the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources,” he said, “and they have confirmed to us that an application for a prospecting licence for the Cregganbaun area has been received. They also said that they would be doing their own investigations into this before making a final decision on it. I met with the Environmental Protection Agency in Castlebar this morning (Monday), and they confirmed that the Cregganbaun region is a designated Special Area of Conservation.”
Mayo’s Gold held a meeting with locals in Killeen Community Centre two weeks ago and hope to involve local land owners as part of the venture. They see this as an international tourist attraction which will be sustainable for up to 30 years and create jobs in the locality during this time.