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Gold mining companies operating in Northern Ireland will receive free policing linked to the handling of explosives as it emerged the PSNI has agreed to pay back over £150,000 to one firm.
anadian company Galantas will be reimbursed after the PSNI admitted it was wrong to charge for supervising the handling of explosives at its gold mine at Cavanacaw near Omagh, Co Tyrone.
Amid concerns the force may now have to provide officers for free to mining operators, including Dalradian Resources if its mine comes on line, the PSNI has launched a “strategic review” of how it provides resources to the industry and providing officers for free to companies to supervise operations may not happen in the longer term, it said.
Galantas, which operates as Flintridge Resources, paid a total of £152,416, including VAT, for the services. The force has written to the company and is in the process of issuing a refund. The company did not respond to a request for comment.
“Whilst the Police Service of Northern Ireland has and will continue to provide a policing service to Galantas, recent legal advice has confirmed that these services cannot be regarded as ‘special police services’,” Assistant Chief Constable Sam Donaldson said.
“Keeping people safe remains our priority and we will therefore continue to ensure that the movement and use of explosives for the quarrying and mining industries is managed in a way that is safe and secure.”
In an answer to a Freedom of Information (FoI) request from a Tyrone-based activist, the PSNI said it “has taken further legal advices on its ability to charge for ‘Special Police Services’ which include the services it supplies to Galantas trading as Flintridge Resources Limited”.
A spokesperson added: “The legal advice is broadly that the provision of such services to the mining and quarrying industries is only necessary because of the prevailing terrorist threat level in Northern Ireland.
“This being so these services are considered to be security related rather than ‘special police services’ which are chargeable for some commercial activities.”
Co Tyrone environmental activist Ciaran McClean, a one time Green Party council candidate, said it took him more than two years, and a court consent order, before some of the information was released.
“I would like to now know how much this is going to cost the public every time they move explosives,” Mr McClean, adding that it may be that the PSNI will have to provide services, and pay for it through its own budget, over the life time of both operations.
The force said that a “strategic review of how we manage our approach to the mining industry is ongoing” and is expected to take a number of months.
Its “ongoing strategic review will determine how the movement and security of explosives is managed on a longer term basis” and that it will not necessarily have to provide the service through the life time of the operations.
Under a 2017 PSNI review, the force defines “special police services” as the “provision of police services over and above core policing at the request of a person or organisation”.
Hourly charges range from £108.79 for a chief superintendent to £63.24 for a constable to £17.35 for a part-time reservist. Services are provided to sporting, music and other events, with discounts available for those that are non-commercial.
Meanwhile Dalradian Resources has been working on its proposed gold mine on 80,000 hectares near Greencastle in Tyrone since early 2010.
Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon announced last Monday that a public inquiry will be held into the development. Dalradian welcomed the announcement, describing the move as “a standard stage toward the end of the planning process for regionally significant projects”.
Dalradian says the project will create around “1,000 jobs during the 20-year-plus operation of the mine and hundreds more during construction”. Construction will be a £158m investment on top of £130m already spent, it said.
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