Our country is for sale. The land we stand on, the air we breathe, the water we drink. Our ministers have been quietly advertising us for sale to the highest bidder at mining conventions worldwide.

The latest potential casualty is Baronscourt.  An area, as described on the Duke of Abercorn’s own website as  'situated in a sheltered valley in the foothills of the Sperrin mountains, you come across an oasis of peace and tranquility', 'a landscape of outstanding natural beauty'. From the ruggedness of Bessy Bell mountain to the natural blend of peaks, forests, moors, valleys, lakes and rivers.  The region's scenery is some of the most beautiful in Ireland!  And this is what is now at risk!

Mining companies are now exploring the viability of setting up a mining operation for the mineral barite in the area. Observation pits are now to be dug to see how big the deposit is!

The vast majority of Northern Ireland is now under prospecting license with 70% of the Derry/Strabane area alone being covered by prospecting licenses!! 

We need to be the voice for our environment.    

• The Department for the Economy are issuing these licenses to prospectors - on whose behalf?? Certainly not ours!  We need them stopped!
• We need the Department of Infrastructure to turn down these planning applications and not waste our tax payers money giving them any airtime! 
• We need our ELECTED politicians and local councilors to listen to what the majority of their constituents want and block all attempts at pillaging our land. 
• We need to show these 'mining investors' that we put our environment, our health and most importantly our children's health - way before their shareholder's wealth (or any promise of jobs or local community investment which they will promise as a trade-off for our land, water and air).
• Our voices can count. Please sign.  By signing you are showing our elected politicians, and the relevant departments that are there to project us and our interests, that we want a clean, safe environment to raise our children in. That this generation cares about the natural world and the landscape we live in and that we do not want our country adding pollution statistics to the environmental disaster this world already faces in climate change.   

Let's show collectively WE ARE NOT FOR SALE and stop the prospecting in this area before any damage is done, thus safeguarding it for all future generations to enjoy.

More info below 

The majority of barite is used in the petroleum industry as a weighting material for drilling for oil and gas.  The petroleum industry is one we are trying to reduce because of its effects on climate change!!  The mining type may be surface or underground. The effects on the visible landscape by either type would be catastropic for the region.

Most people are aware of the destruction that mining leaves in its wake. There is an illusion to some it will provide jobs and wealth for the community, this tends to be far from the truth  .... eg BBC Panorama programme aired 24th November re mining in the Congo for cobalt 

The Electric Car Revolution: Winners and Loosers

The Department of the Environment, who are the custodians of our land and waterways, has so far proved itself lacking in knowledge and expertise in the mining field therefore incapable of policing the industy -  leaving the miners in effect self-regulated! Please see BBC Spotlight programme aired 26th October

Goldrush: The War in the Sperri