{"id":311062,"date":"2025-08-02T04:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/311062\/"},"modified":"2025-08-02T04:51:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T04:51:14","slug":"botched-process-sees-mining-giants-surrender-controversial-prospecting-licences-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/311062\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Botched\u2019 process sees mining giants surrender controversial prospecting licences \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Stormont department has been forced to relinquish seven controversial mining licences after what it terms an \u201coversight\u201d. <\/p>\n

The licences were awarded by the Department for the Economy (DfE) in May despite more than 2,000 objections.<\/p>\n

They gave a provisional green light for international mining companies to begin prospecting across swathes of counties Armagh, Fermanagh, Tyrone and Derry.<\/p>\n

But on Friday afternoon, DfE issued a brief statement saying the companies had agreed to relinquish the licences in the hope of undertaking a fresh 12-week consultation process.<\/p>\n

\"Dublin<\/a>\"Taxpayer<\/a><\/p>\n

The statement came as a group campaigning against the prospecting licences received correspondence from the Department of Finance\u2019s top solicitor indicating that the licences were being surrendered in response to a legal challenge.<\/p>\n

The Save Our Sperrins group had previously submitted a pre-action protocol letter setting out the grounds on which it planned to launch a court challenge.<\/p>\n

According to DfE, public notices of the intention to grant the prospecting licences was passed to the Belfast Gazette but they were not published as required under legislation.<\/p>\n

\"f\"Fidelma O\u2019Kane from Save Our Sperrins. PICTURE COLM LENAGHAN <\/p>\n

The Belfast Gazette is a British government-run publication in which public notices are published, often to ensure legal compliance.<\/p>\n

Save Our Sperrins spokesperson Fidelma O\u2019Kane said the latest development was \u201crepresentative of our executive\u2019s failure to carry out its proper duty\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis botched process is just the latest in a series of questionable decisions made against the wishes of local people,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile failure to publish these public notices is given as the reason for the licences being relinquished, we believe there are many reasons they should be stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foyle MLA and SDLP economy spokesperson Sin\u00e9ad McLaughlin said there was \u201csignificant public opposition and environmental concern\u201d around mineral prospecting.<\/p>\n

She said no further licenses should be granted until a comprehensive review of mineral licensing was completed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is further evidence of the incompetence at the heart of our executive, alongside their say one thing and do another approach,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

The Belfast Gazette has been approached for comment.<\/p>\n

The Department for the Economy said it had been advised to readdress its \u201coversight\u201d by seeking approval from the companies to relinquish the licences, \u201cwhich has been agreed\u201d. <\/p>\n

DfE previously said it was \u201ccarrying out a comprehensive review of mineral licensing\u201d but that existing law must be complied with in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Stormont department has been forced to relinquish seven controversial mining licences after what it terms an \u201coversight\u201d.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[3933,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-311062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-mining","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114957378138612506","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}