Galantas to resume underground development work at Northern Ireland mine

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Underground development is set to resume at the Omagh gold mine, in Northern Ireland, after the police agreed to supervise blasting operations in line with anti-terrorism rules.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has agreed to increase the availability of its required anti-terrorism cover from two hours a day, two days a week, to two hours a day, three days a week.

The agreement allows Galantas to resume underground development work, but the TSX-V and Aim-listed company said on Monday that it remained insufficient to sustain the operation of Omagh on a long-term basis.

“I am pleased that the PSNI has agreed to a short-term accommodation. I hope this will allow the parties to find efficient ways to satisfy PSNI’s requirements and resources issues in regard to anti-terrorism security,” Galantas president and CEO Roland Phelps said in a statement.

The PSNI requires that it supervises transportation and use of certain rock breaking materials and explosives, owing to the potential for terrorist use of those materials.

Galantas placed underground development of Omagh on hold last month, after the PSNI said that it could not provide the required anti-terrorism cover for blasting at the project. The PSNI had also requested a cost recovery agreement to provide the cover.

The three-day cover enables Galantas to retain some of the existing employees at the project.

The underground mine, when fully developed, is expected to create 130 jobs.

The Omagh gold mine has an operational processing plant and tailings facility. The plant uses a nontoxic, froth flotation process, without the use of cyanide or mercury, and produces a gold concentrate which is exported for smelting. The plant is on standby awaiting ore from underground development.

Mining at the Omagh mine had been conducted by openpit methods up to the suspension of production in 2013.