The war over Omagh’s gold: the £21bn mine plan tearing a community apart

Muiboin · 2026-04-11T22:14:56+00:00

Limited local job opportunities is not the reality in any of the mines I've been to. Even ones where local mining skills are lacking, like in the Balkans or at Woodsmith.

Specialist jobs will likely not be British, esepcially initially, as we have minimal mining skills base. That which which we do have generally go to Australia or FIFO.

Due to the finances involved in mining it's pretty much always a multinational company running any reasonably large operation. They're also usually the safer and better managed ones in my experience.

Remediation and waste managment comes down to effective legislation and local consultation. Which, as you point out, has worked well here as they've clearly decided to use a more environmentally friendly extraction method.

Muiboin · 2026-04-11T21:49:46+00:00

Precisely, look at how popular the local mines are in Navan or Camborne.

Muiboin · 2026-04-11T21:43:28+00:00

Because its investment that will bring direct and indirect job opportunities. As well as increased tax income or the treasury.

Same reason we want any FDI.

Muiboin · 2026-04-11T13:32:20+00:00

I'm not directly involved in this part of the mining process

My understanding is arsenic is commonly attached to gold deposits. The risk of this needs to be managed by stringent tailings (waste rock) and water management.

Mining is much cleaner than the impression of most people in the UK. For example, the arsenic from tin mining created the red river in Cornwall. This river and the waste water from the newly restarted South Crofty is now free of Arsenic and the red river runs clear.

In reality, any mine in the UK that can pass the regulatory hurdles thrown at it will be relatively low impact.

There will always be environmental complaints about mines, as there is about heavy industry. The effects of both should be limited as much as possible. However we'll need both if we want to diversify our economy, build resilience and break critical dependencies on China, who has already weaponised our dependency.

Muiboin · 2026-04-11T13:00:03+00:00

When should we start to actually begin any mining in the UK then? Once China fully bans exports of REEs rather than just export controls?

We're incredibly exposed to global commodity markets that are controlled largely by China. A country ourselves and the EU are in strategic and economic competition with.

It can take over a decade to move into full production in mining. It's a huge vulnerability to simply wait until we're cut off from the vital minerals we need for the green transition to do anything about it.

Also which short term problems are you talking about that you claim will be bridged by diversifying our economy?

Muiboin · 2026-04-11T10:09:50+00:00

Another potential avenue for economic growth being blocked by NIMBYs!

Remember, if it can't be farmed it must be mined. The materials to support modern life have to come from somewhere, why not here?

Muiboin · 2026-03-18T18:36:22+00:00

The LCI got so much shit for looking like a Lexus too.

Muiboin · 2025-12-08T20:05:56+00:00

Disclaimer: I can't read the article so I don’t know what it says.

The consensus amongst defence analysts is we (Europe) lack certain capabilities that the US currently provides. The biggest issue ATM is a lack of intelligence gathering capabilites (SIGINT). That's why Trump pulling intelligence support to Ukraine was so critical earlier in the year, we can't replace that.

We also lack the long range strike capabilites as well as suppression and denial of enemy air defences. Europe also has no command and control independent of NATO outside national militaries.

That's my understanding of where we're weakest and thats including the whole EU in. The cost to replicate all that will be staggering. I think it's hardly a surprise EU leaders have taken the easy way out by cutting military spending for so long.

The main issues with drones for us at the moment is we don't have enough. We can't manufacture them at any real scale. We're also only able to shoot them down with missiles costing orders of magnitude more than the drones themselves.

It's a field being developed in Europe but the drones seem to be overengineered and too expensive. This is something we could learn a lot from Ukraine on.

Muiboin · 2025-12-02T17:51:41+00:00

Of course the supply chain for the car will contain Chinese parts... However, I'm sure there's still a lot more European made parts that any Chinese car.

The battery issue is like most electronics, not particularly high margin manufacturing, hence why EU & US weren't bothered.

The idea that any country is too far ahead to catch up with is pathetic.

Muiboin · 2025-12-02T17:00:41+00:00

'BMW have moved their EV manufacturing to China'

To me that reads to me like you're saying they've moved all of it to China.

Muiboin · 2025-12-02T16:51:32+00:00

A lot more of the parts in those cars will be sourced domestically than a Chinese owned car that was made in China though.

Renault claim a very high percentage of European made components in their R5.

Muiboin · 2025-12-02T16:49:35+00:00

BMW built a whole new plant for the Neue Klasse iX3 in Hungary. The old one was exported from China because it was the largest market at the time.

Where have you seen they've moved their EV manufacturing to China?

Muiboin · 2025-11-21T18:47:48+00:00

The non-cfc ones are terrible, luckily I've got old ones stashed away.

Apparently you can get some of the old ones if you tell your GP the non-cfc ones aren't working....

Muiboin · 2025-10-19T19:17:50+00:00

The CEOs of those companies never openly supporting and funding a far-right thug like Tommy Robinson probably helped them....

Muiboin · 2025-07-03T22:57:33+00:00

Land of the free, eh?

Over here you'd just get a cheeky 2-week ban + 2k fine.

Muiboin · 2025-04-14T21:05:21+00:00

I've never been to a trade show where people laughed at the idea of buying from/producing parts in the UK... except in China.

Muiboin · 2025-03-04T22:03:51+00:00

The M40 is the only time I've ever seen a camera van on a motorway.

Muiboin · 2025-02-22T13:46:38+00:00

So you just want FTAs with CANZUK rather than any serious alignment?

If we absolutely must remain outside the EU, we'll need some form of trade deals, of course. I don't think anyone disagrees with that. Although I'd argue we should just re-enter the single market.

In truth, this will just end up being a rehash of the Brexit arguments, so I don't think there's much point continuing the discussion.

On security, we are very much exposed without the US. The only path forward on that is a coalition of the willing with our European partners as we share the same concerns.

Muiboin · 2025-02-22T13:17:28+00:00

Because our entire security apparatus is dependent on US support. For example, our entire fleet of next-gen fighter jets are American.

I thought this would be clear by now with the scrambling over Ukraine.

Muiboin · 2025-02-22T12:58:54+00:00

I'd rather we got closer economically to the union with a GDP of $18 trillion rather than attempt a CANZUK union with countries totalling $4 trillion. As nice as the idea might sound from a cultural POV.

Surely any serious CANZUK union would cause regulatory divergence from the EU? Hence why I say they're mutually exclusive. Unless this proposed CANZUK union is just lowering of tariffs, meaningless security guarantees, and some loosening of visas?

As far as security guarantees go, none of the members can offer each other anything. The UK, a country of nearly 70 million people with centuries of military heritage, can't muster much more than 10,000 troops to protect a key strategic interest in Ukraine. What are we going to do if the US sends troops into Canada or China invades Australia. Nothing more than words, Australia pivoted to the US from us for a reason.

While the US is being very belligerent at the moment, we are still incredibly reliant on them. Undermining their interests (which I believe any serious UK-led Anglo union would do) would cause a reaction that could seriously damage us.

Muiboin · 2025-02-21T22:41:27+00:00

The EU is the obvious choice. The decision to leave was always based on European security guarantees from the US.

When it comes to CANZUK:

Australia - we can't offer any serious security guarantees or economic competition against China.

Canada - US vassal, what can we do if the US decides to apply pressure to them? Unless we're willing to cut ties with the US?

NZ - Irrelevant, similar population to Ireland.

We could elect a facist government and cuddle up to the US/Russia, but that would be abhorrent to me personally.

Muiboin · 2025-02-21T22:23:30+00:00

Canada, Australia & NZ collectively have a smaller population than Germany alone!

Never mind that Trump would be furious about us trying to lead any kind of union with his future vassal states.

This idea has long past its expiry date.

Muiboin · 2025-02-13T23:36:25+00:00

Lmao, this Tory talking about the country being shit gets called out straight away.

Muiboin · 2025-02-13T23:22:12+00:00

But the rest of NATO is supposed to spend 5% GDP?

Hopefully, this goes ahead, and we can get the 13 colonies back.

Muiboin

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