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LOCAL RESIDENTS ARE campaigning against plans for lithium exploration along the border between Wicklow and Carlow.
Blackstairs Lithium Company has applied to the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications to renew its prospecting licence to explore for mineral deposits in over 150 townlands over a 50km area between Carlow and Wicklow – some of which encompasses part of the Wicklow Way nature trail.
The state-owned forestry company Coillte owns several commercial forests in the area.
Blackstairs Lithium Company has been carrying out exploratory drilling in the area since 2013. It is a subsidiary of Chinese company Ganfeng Lithium (which is the world’s largest lithium producer) and Canada-based firm International Lithium.
A community organisation is raising concerns that lithium excavation would inflict permanent ecological damage in the Blackstairs and Wicklow Mountains.
Residents fear it would harm the local water supply, impact biodiversity, create significant traffic problems in the rural area and scar the landscape.
“If these explorations were to proceed, the scar could stretch from Borris in the Blackstairs Mountains to Aughrim in the Wicklow Mountains for over 50 kilometres,” the Protect Moylisha Hill community group says.
Lithium has several industrial applications, including rechargeable batteries, glass and ceramics, medicine and steel and rubber production.
A prospecting licence entitles the holder to explore for mineral deposits but does not authorise mining any minerals. The Department of the Environment says the activities permissible under a licence are, in general, non-invasive and of minimal environmental impact.
However, the local residents say the company has been investigating the area for many years now and its licence renewal indicates an interest in stepping-up its activities in the area.
“They’ve been prospecting for years now. They’ve found stuff, we know they have found lithium up there,” one of the local campaigners, Belinda Bielenberg, explains.
They’re spending a lot of money on geologists at the moment. The more money they spend on prospecting, the more hungry they’re going to be to get going and selling the actual lithium.
International Lithium says it has discovered 19 significant lithium pegmatite occurrences during its excavations on the site to date. Pegmatite is granite-like rock that houses elements such as lithium.
The Protect Moylisha Hill group says that the application is creating a deep sense of unease among locals as the lithium excavation could inflict lasting ecological damage to biodiversity, rivers and farmland.
They say the proposed drilling sites include much of the Wicklow Way and the project is putting at risk a rich habitat for naturally occurring flora and fauna.
They also say the company has made no effort to openly engage with the local community. It also has concerns about the prospecting causing damage to the Moylisha wedge tomb, a megalithic burial site.
“The whole part of the Wicklow Way walk, it goes over two hills down here. Every angle you’ll see this big scar in the landscape,” says Bielenberg.
“All of our German visitors, French visitors who come over to go walking in beautiful Ireland are going to see this ugly scar.”
The community group says it intends to raise its concerns with environment minister Eamon Ryan as well as other politicians shortly.
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Aren’t we going to need lithium for electric battery which are need for EV to stop climate change? These tree huggers are delighted for electric cars until they’re mining minerals in their town.
@Cillan Power: I wouldn’t want it in my town either, I’m sure most wouldn’t. Could they not just mine in somewhere where people can’t complain about it?
@Burt Macklin: a mine in a town?
@Burt Macklin: what about the tax revenue for the country
@Burt Macklin: Like China and Zimbabwe, for example? People in those countries don’t complain because they might get into trouble. By the way, how many of the several people in the photo above own lithium battery-powered mobile phones, I wonder.
@Cillan Power: plenty of lithium in Australia from massive open cast mines that already exist. no need to ruin another place
@Leitrim303: have you not heard? The Chinese have had a bit of a falling out with the Aussies, something to do with covid.
@Cillan Power: They’ll organise demonstrations on their mobile phones and drive to them in their e-cars, all thanks to lithium.
@OConnelj: Ever hear of Navan?
@Earth Traveller: exactly! Those places are perfect for it
@OConnelj: they quickly back tracked on there Aussie coal ban
As long as it comes from africa or the amazon rainforest that’s ok, but not the emerald Isle.
Our Landscape is Not for Sale….oh the irony of that poster in front of non native Sitka Spruce monoculture that supports feck all native wildlife and leaves the landscape like Nagasaki after harvesting…our landscape is for sale LOOK BEHIND YOU
Small minded slack jawed yokels. They haven’t the first clue about lithium exploration and mining .
Lithium is needed if we want to go renewable as it’s the element which makes batteries rechargeable. Also, before mining , environmental impact studies are independently undertaken to evaluate their concerns .
Also, current lithium levels are far far away from requirement for going electric.
But sure down with that sort of thing and careful now ..
@Ciaran: that’s a bit harsh. When you have to destroy the environment to allegedly save the environment, is that not defeating the purpose?
@Ciaran: rude and ignorant comment. I assume you’re not from the area? These lands are stunning, it’s not called the garden of Ireland for no reason! Letting yet another Chinese company in, which typically hadn’t bothered to engage with the community, is always a bad idea.
@Anna Carr: who said they are destroying the environment..? Jumping to conclusions..
@Ciaran: “who said they are destroying the environment..?”
Google ‘lithium mining’ and look at the photos that pop up.
It’s not hard to research such things these days.
And if the Chinese are involved this will not be a small, neat operation.
@Ciaran: Have you researched what lithium mines are like and do to the environment in the location they are in.
I want people to see this:
This is the entrance to one of the biggest gypsum mines in Europe, the Birkshead Mine operated by British Gypsum. I visited the mine in 1996, the section of the mine we visited was vast, hollowed out Cathedral like voids, 20-30 meters high. The mine is clean dry and warm, and brightly lit, it looks like the set of a 007 movie. The mine opened in 1948 and it produces 65,000 tonnes of gypsum per year.
Except for the surface buildings you would hardly know the mine is there. The mined gypsum is conveyed by a covered conveyor belt, nearly 2 km long (the longest in the UK) to the gypsum factory at Kirkby Thore.
On the left side of the mine buildings is the entrance to the Mine. The entrance is hidden, concealed by a decline, you drive down a slope in a 4×4 Toyota pickup into the mine entrance. When I visited I had no idea where the entrance was, I thought we took a wrong turn into a car park. The mine has to be concealed at is close to the Lake District National Park.
When people think mining is destructive, polluting, an eyesore, I want them to see this, this what mining looks like when done well.
@David Jordan: that’s exactly how modern underground mining is done today I know this as I am a retired miner after almost fifty years in the business I have seen all the changes for the better in the mining industry except for a few buildings you wouldn’t know an underground mine was operating there
@David Jordan: Here is another great example. The Hishikari gold mine in Japan,
the richest gold mine ever discovered in Japan, between 1982 and 2012 produced 200 tons of gold from 5 million tonnes of ore:
The rock is crushed and then sorted by hand:
https://www.smm.co.jp/corp_info/location/domestic/img/hishikari_img06.jpg
The sorted ore is the transported to the Harima Refinery outside Osaka where the gold is extracted. That way the threat of pollution at the mine site is reduced, which is near several hot springs and popular spas (which also explains the origin of the gold).
Mining can be done with minimal impact on the environment, but many people’s misunderstanding comes from seeing old mines Ireland that operated when environmental concerns were disregarded or accidents in developing or corrupt countries where there’s little or no environmental regulation.
@David Jordan:
Meanwhile here’s an actual lithium mine (Greenbushes, Western Australia).
@David Jordan: As one drives around Ireland, how many county councils have required Quarry operators to consider even the most basic safety aspects of a spent or abandoned quarry!
The owners move on and leave a massive ugly hole with dangerous high ledges and some with dangerous swimming holes! Initially the county council charge a paltry fee for the right to quarry and the taxpayers will eventually shoulder the significant cost of dealing with the nationwide aftermath.
@Thomas Smyth: Lithium Mining in Ireland will most likely be underground, both for technical and environmental reasons, as the pegmatite, which is a tabular vein of rock extending deep underground, necessitates underground mining, e.g. the pegmatite vein at Aclare is 20 meters wide and is at least 400 meters long, about 100 times smaller than Greenbushes.
That said, open cast mining can be done with minimal impact and the land will be restored after mining ceases, returned to fully to nature.
A good example of that is Broughton Lodge Coal Mine Cumbria, it used to be a large open cast coal mine, it’s now fully restored (Soddy Gap). It is so loved by the locals they tried to buy it and turn it into a nature park:
“The RSPB lists Soddy Gap as a prime bird watching site.
The wetland habitat supports an extensive bird and wildfowl population and is accessible by wheelchair. Tree sparrow, yellow hammer and grasshopper warblers have been spotted around the car parking area. On the ponds, there is a good selection of wildfowl including tufted duck, mallard, teal, wigeon, pochard and goldeneye. There are also resident greylags and Canada geese. Greenland whitefronts have been recorded there, as have kestrels, sparrowhawks, buzzards, barn owls, short eared owls and hen harriers.”
You wouldn’t know that one of the largest open cast coal mines in the UK was located there in the 90s.
I visited the mine when it was operating, they mined several 1-foot thick of high rank coal/anthracite seams, used for steel smelting. Miners showed us the mining artefacts they found, from a 17th century mine that preceded the opencast mine, most poignant was a small 200-year-old shoe, a child’s shoe.
https://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/17030029.residents-miss-chance-to-buy-nature-reserve/
https://www.birdguides.com/sites/europe/britain-ireland/britain/england/cumbria/soddy-gap/
@D Doherty: However, regulations are more stringent now, and approval will require a detailed plan explaining how the mine (or quarry) will be cleaned up and restored after mining (or quarrying) ends. Benches will be profiled and ponds lakes filled, or if not ponds can be turned into an amenity e.g. here is the restoration plan for a quarry at Tullykane, Kilmessan Co Meath
“The main landscape effects that will take place due to the proposed development will be the changes to the landform within the fill area, removal of the temporary stockpiles of overburden & additional hedgerow/trees. This will result in the creation of agricultural land in keeping with the surrounding landscape and profiled, levelled and finished off to integrate seamlessly with the local area. There will also be the creation of a new landscape feature through the development the proposed Public Amenity Park”
“Restoration of the Aggregates Quarry at Tullykane, Kilmessan Co Meath” – https://epawebapp.epa.ie/licences/lic_eDMS/090151b280609533.pdf
@Ned: I’m on a project in n,Yorkshire potash mine its under the n,Yorkshire national Park the finished tunnell will be 36k long for a conveyor from the mine totally unseen ,no scar on the landscape.
Yorkshire is near all mined out and you’d never tell by the landscape..
@Thomas Smyth: Oh gosh – start using a URL shortening site like https://tinyurl.com
@David Jordan: thanks David for your contributions. While one understands the fears of locals – unfortunately yhe fears are based on emotional fantasy without any knowledge of project plans and actual environmental and social impacts.
@David Jordan: Thanks David. Very informative.
@THINK Paddy THINK: As a local and someone who regularly uses the Blackstairs, half the reason for the reaction is the total lack of information given to the locals.
If it weren’t for a local interest group, nobody would have known about the renewal at all. We have a shocking record of transparent local government in this country which leads to a lot of distrust and fear.
Also, if the company voluntarily engaged with the locals, they might be able to allay fears and help themselves in case of future developments.
@David Jordan: Any suggestions on what to do in a situation where the county council/government are the biggest customers of a Quarry who conveniently fail to follow the new rules! How might a nearby family with young kids ever have a hope of success against a business with “friends” in the right places who can afford to run down the clock on any legal action?
Let’s hope we get some royalties from the lithium if the licence is issued.
Not like our Oil and Gas that we gave away for free.
The same people are probably all for Electric cars!
Every body wants the phone batteries etc that comes from lithium for the green driven climate changers in Ireland but o no can’t mine in our country
That’s typical Irish I say
@Ned: typical attitude you can find from them alright. This kind of stuff is best kept in poorer countries and out of site.
The contradictions of environment and the green dream……Best case is stop it…..
“Tree huggers”…really!? The physical mining and production of lithium is extremely harmful to the environment. Toxic chemicals are used in processing lithium. Mining for lithium contaminates the soil and the air. There are cleaner alternatives like sodium. We need to learn from other areas that have lithium mining. The answer is not to destroy our environment because we humans want and want and want.
We are loosing wildlife left, right and centre here in Ireland, and mining that beautiful, sacred part of our island will only add to that. Please do not let this be another Shell pipe line tragedy. Let’s not be like other countries whose government sold out to big money. Let’s face it, that is what this is all really about…money.
Only French and German visitors?
NIMBYISM again
@Appaddy: Not in mine back yard…
Lithium mining is a very polluting business and it is not just Wicklow and Carlow people who are against it. These companies like Rio Tinto and Ganfeng make big promises to local communities and then back-pedal when it is time to deliver on the promises.
all those ev drivers in wicklow objecting to lithium mining. couldn’t make it up.
Australia mine 50% of the worlds lithium and I don’t see any environmental or ecological disasters down there because of it, fossil fuel extraction on the other hand…..
@David Spiteri: may be wrong, but isn’t it isn’t it Chile Argentina then Australia…?
@The Kev in Kevlar: Australia are estimated to have the 5th most natural reserves of lithium but they mine the most, over 40k tonnes annually out of a total of 85k tonnes per year globally.
@David Spiteri: Lithium mining in Australia is done in the Pilbara and other remote areas far from human habitation.
@David Spiteri: ah ok, I got mixed up with reserves and mining, cheers
If you ask any of the environmentalist who keep going on about e-vehicles about the battery issues. They shut up and change the subject.
This has been the elephant in the room for years and only now is it coming into the MSM. As they could not be seen to be anti environmental.
Google the issues and you will find that rental e-scooters are actually not very green either.
But the headlong rush to be green beats real research and investigation.
Suggest that the reality is not the nirvana that they plan and you are a hater or a denier. Which is sad, I am following the research.
@Gary Kearney: Fair enough.
(I have to stop & recharge my phone now, I’ve had it for five years.)
If there is to be any lithium mining why can’t it be done by and for the benefit of the Irish state?
Why is any foreign company, particularly one coming from a country with human right abuses take place allowed to provide any service in Ireland?
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