The Sperrins: Mining, Power & Community in Northern Ireland

The mine-waste evidence topic  reaches its final day at the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry, but big questions remain. From extreme rainfall and ageing drainage systems to liners, emergency planning and what happens long after the mine closes, today's evidence eventually led to a crucial question: Should this mine-waste facility actually be Category A?
And when DfI was asked to point to the evidence supporting its decision that it isn't, things became interesting.
Listen, share the podcast and help more people understand what is actually being said inside this Inquiry room.
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
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Dr Steven Emerman returns to the podcast to examine the proposed Curraghinalt Mine Waste Facility and the assumptions on which its long-term safety depends.
Drawing on his recent investigation of filtered-tailings facilities in Indonesia including work undertaken by an engineering consultancy whom we will refer to as Consultancy A who also designed the proposed Curraghinalt dry-stack facility we discuss what happens when engineering calculations meet conditions on the ground.
We explore water, drainage, compaction, foundations, monitoring, failure scenarios and restoration .
Link to Steven’s report: https://dontmineus.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/filtered_tailings_in_indonesia.pdf
Filtered Tailings in Indonesia The Catastrophic Failure of a DisruptiveTechnology
Technical Report: Steven H. Emerman, PhD, Malach Consulting
Summary, Analysis, and Recommendations: Ellen Moore, Jan Morrill, Vuyisile Ncube,and Paulina Personius, and Arianto Sangadji
On behalf of Earthworks March, 2026
Link to #23 Dr. Emermans earlier podcast  - The Science of Failure: Truth, Risk, and Responsibility
 
Failure of Filtered Tailings Mine  Waste Facility 
https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/repeated-failures-expose-gaps-in-indonesias-nickel-waste-management/
Dry stack facility- undergoing liquefaction:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCfMnlWmEbo
 
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
 
 

What happens when you start pulling at the loose threads?
Another extraordinary day at the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry, with the proposed mine waste facility firmly under the microscope.
Today brought questions about calculations, ground investigations, boreholes, moisture, failure scenarios, consequence classifications and the guidance being relied upon. Again and again, third parties went back to the documents and asked some very basic questions: Where is the evidence? Has it been tested? And what happens if the assumptions are wrong?
There were also a few moments of unintended humour including SRK's memorable insistence that "we use numbers, not rules of thumb."
🎧 Listen, share the podcast and please send it to someone who isn't following the Inquiry. What is happening in that room deserves a much wider public audience.
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
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https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins
 

High-Grade Gold, Empty Tunnels & Musical Chairs at the Curraghinalt Inquiry
The room was packed today as the Public Inquiry returned to mine waste  with Dalradian surrounded by an extraordinary array of counsel, consultants and technical experts.
But behind the occasional game of expert musical chairs were some very serious questions.
In today's podcast:
• Are Dalradian's estimates of gold suitably precautionary  and achievable?• What's the difference between a mineral resource and a mineral reserve?• Has GSNI independently tested Dalradian's estimates?• Why was an Irish seismicity map apparently absent from the mine-waste assessment?• Have tunnels that will remain unfilled underground been properly considered in assessing seismic risk?• And where does GSNI's role as scientific adviser sit alongside its history of promoting Northern Ireland's mineral potential?
There were plenty of experts in the room today.
Whether all the questions received equally substantial answers is another matter.
Listen, share the podcast, and help more people understand what is actually being discussed at the Curraghinalt Public Inquiry.
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
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As the Public Inquiry prepares to resume, this week I step back from the detail and look at the bigger picture  public trust, transparency, the role of ordinary people and why, after 12 years, we are still here.
A moment to reflect before the next term begins.
🎧 Listen, share and help us bring more people into the conversation. The more people who understand what is happening in the Sperrins, the stronger the public voice becomes.
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what happened at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
https://dontmineus.com/newsletter/
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#SaveOurSperrins #DontMineUs #Sperrins #PublicInquiry #PublicTrust

This is the second podcast of two, where in the first podcast looked at the  new guidance for the water framework directive and how it might impact the public inquiry . This second podcast speaks from the point of view of the river 
We still don't know why the applicant asked for this new guidance to be put before the Public Inquiry, or how they intend to use it when the water evidence begins.
So rather than trying to second-guess the argument, maybe  we should learn how to listen for it.
And this time I'm letting the river do the talking.
🎧 Listen and share this episode, particularly with anyone living downstream.
Because perhaps the question isn't simply who speaks for the river?
Rather it might be : Are we prepared to hear what she is telling us?
As always, this podcast is intended to help people understand what is happening  at the Inquiry by bringing together the week's evidence in plain English.
Read the European Commission guidance discussed in this podcast – C/2026/2836 (official EUR-Lex document).
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52026XC02836&utm_source=chatgpt.com
 
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
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The Public Inquiry may be on a break, but just before we left, a newly published European Commission guidance document was admitted into the Inquiry at the request of the applicant.
And it is all about water, permitting and mining.
With 11 days of evidence on water, water ecology and non-water ecology scheduled for later in the Inquiry, I thought it was worth understanding this document before we get there.
In this episode:
What the new European Commission guidance actually says  and what it doesn’t.
What exactly are mixing zones?
What is a water body ?
Natural background levels, monitoring and baseline evidence.
New provisions around short-term deterioration and relocating existing pollution.
And two words we may want to remember when the water evidence begins: “sufficient certainty.”
This isn't the easiest subject, but water is far too important to leave entirely to the experts......
🎧 Listen, share it with someone living downstream  and come back for the next episode, when I’ll look at the river has to say .
Read the European Commission guidance discussed in this podcast – C/2026/2836 (official EUR-Lex document).
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:52026XC02836&utm_source=chatgpt.com
 
If you find these updates useful, please consider joining the Sperrins community  campaign newsletter.
https://dontmineus.com/newslatter/
 
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 This episode asks who gets to decide what a landscape becomes, explores the idea of darkness as part of our shared inheritance
In this episode:
The European Commission's new Water Framework Directive guidance and why campaigners are paying attention.
Concerns raised about mitigation measures and the absence of key native files.
Why today's hearing  was really  about power, place and stewardship although the topic was lighting .
The idea of "the commons" and whether darkness belongs to all of us.
A reflection on who gets to shape the landscapes we leave to future generations.
🎧 Listen now, and if you value independent reporting from inside the Public Inquiry, please follow, share and leave a review. Every recommendation helps others discover the podcast.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newslatter/

After almost a month's break, the Public Inquiry returns and so do the daily podcasts.
At first glance, today's hearing was about lighting and dark skies. But as the day unfolded, it became clear that this wasn't really about lighting at all. It was about what darkness means.
In this episode:
Why three days have been devoted to lighting at the Inquiry.
The hidden value of dark skies.
Why darkness matters for wildlife and human health.
The importance of silence, stars and rural identity.
A reflection on what we choose to value in an increasingly uncertain world.
🎧 Listen now and, if it resonates with you, please share the podcast with someone who loves the Sperrins and believes some things are simply beyond price.

As the Public Inquiry takes a short summer break, so too does the podcast. I'll be back when the Inquiry resumes on 4th, 5th and 6th August, but before then I'd like to leave you this .
In this special episode, I share a poem I wrote several years ago my own original reinterpretation, inspired by the style of The Vagina Monologues. It is a lament for the land, imagining the Earth as a living body and reflecting on what it feels like to witness a cherished landscape opened, wounded and changed.
The accompanying artwork is a striking linocut of a Sheela na Gig by Valerie Whitworth. These ancient stone carvings, found across Ireland, are widely regarded as symbols of the sacred feminine, fertility, protection and the life-giving power of the Earth. They provide a fitting companion to a poem about our relationship with the earth and our responsibility to protect it.
Thank you for listening, for caring, and for walking this journey with me. I'll see you again in August.
If you value thoughtful, commentary on the Inquiry, please consider following the podcast, sharing this episode, and joining our campaign mailing list to stay connected. https://dontmineus.com/newslatter/
SAVE OUR SPERRINS ( Social Media) 
https://linktr.ee/saveoursperrins