The UK launched its 25-year Minerals Strategy at last weeks ‘Living With Minerals 6’ Conference in London. The strategy was prepared by the CBI (Confederation of British Industry) and the Mineral Products Association. 

At its launch, John Cowley of CBI also referred to the UK’s complete absence from The Fraser Institute Survey of mining countries, noting the marked contrast to Ireland which ranks highly. He also noted that minerals features in Irish planning policy and that Ireland has a Minister for Natural Resources, stating that the UK has neither.  Other panellists noted the problem of private mineral ownership in the UK. The mineral rights position in Ireland and the passage of the recent Mineral Development Act (2017) are both major positives for the sector.

Irish companies have a proven history of providing expert consulting and contracting services to the UK’s mining and quarrying sectors. Geoscience Ireland (GI) Member Companies are active on projects in Cornwall,  Yorkshire and Cumbria. Several GI Members work for Dalradian Resources, which sponsored last weeks event in London, on its Tyrone gold project. Tarmac, a major UK aggregates producer, is a subsidiary of CRH and Ireland’s Lagan Group was recently taken over by UK’s Breedon Group; both Roadstone, a CRH company, and Lagan are members of GI.

Link to Strategy download: http://www.mineralproducts.org/documents/UK_Minerals_Strategy.pdf