The John Muir Trust has cautiously welcomed the prospect of revised plans for a gold mine at Cononish, near Tyndrum in the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park.
Developer Scotgold Resources Ltd has issued a letter to interested parties stating its intention to submit a new application for the mine, which will include a Tailings Management Facility (which will deal with excavated waste) that is “approximately half” the size of the original. The waste treatment and the effect on the River Cononish was the main reason for the refusal of the original planning application by the National Park Authority. The company has also withdrawn its appeal against the refusal which was made in August 2010.
Steven Turnbull, policy officer at the JMT, said: “We will have to look closely at the new application but it seems that Scotgold Resources has taken the right decision in acknowledging the permanent impact its original proposal would have had on the surrounding landscape.
“If the revised application fully addresses our concerns it is likely that we will remove our objection.”
Scotgold Resources Ltd had applied to mine gold and silver and develop a controversial water extraction system. The mine had previously been abandoned as uneconomic in 1997 but recent surges in world gold prices had fuelled interest and exploratory work by Scotgold.
At the time of the planning refusal the, then, convenor of the Park Authority, Mike Cantlay said potential economic benefits could not be balanced against conservation concerns, but explained that the application had been a very difficult one to consider with compelling arguments on both sides. The application had previously been described by Fiona Logan, chief executive of the Park Authority, as, “our Beauly-Denny in terms of controversy”.
Mr Cantlay told the BBC, “Our main concern lay with the design, scale and visual impact of the waste management facility which would hold 820,000 tonnes of slurry waste.
“At the end of the day, we could not balance the potential economic benefits against our primary aim to conserve and enhance our natural heritage, one of the original reasons for establishing National Parks in Scotland.”
At the time, the local community council for Tyndrum was in favour of the application, hoping that long term jobs would be created and tourism given a boost from the sale of Scottish gold products. However the Mountaineering Council of Scotland, the RSPB, Scottish Natural Heritage and the JMT all objected to the application on environmental grounds and some tourism businesses were worried that the damage to the enviroment would put off tourists attracted by the landscape and natural beauty of the area.