'How much is a life worth?': Northern Irish community split over gold-mining plans

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There’s gold in the Sperrin mountains – £3bn, to be precise – but local residents fiercely oppose developers’ plans

Peter McKenna remembers the trickle of visitors who started panning for gold in the Sperrin mountains of County Tyrone in the 1970s. “We put them in the same bracket as the leprechauns and the ringforts, end of the rainbow type stuff.”

It turned out there really was gold. But an attempt to start mining in the 1980s faltered – the Troubles were raging and authorities feared the IRA would steal any explosives brought into this corner of Northern Ireland.

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from The Guardian https://ift.tt/2X0QKAb

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