As far back as last week, when this topic first appeared on the Order Paper, I could sense resentment from the Minister. Therefore, I am grateful to him for sacrificing other distractions.

My most recent visit to Cavanacaw, outside Omagh, was last Friday afternoon. The southern Sperrins region is a beautiful part of the world, but, on arriving at the townlands in and around Cavanacaw, I was struck by the huge stockpiles of rock that scar the landscape and are visible for miles. It looked more like a quarrying business than a gold mine. Anybody passing through the area would think that that they were looking at a succession of quarrying businesses rather than a gold mine.

In 1995, planning permission was granted to Omagh Minerals Limited for the extraction of gold and silver. However, the mine did not go into production until 2007. Although planning approval was secured, numerous conditions were attached to it in order to protect local residents, community amenities and the environment. I am interested to hear the Minister’s comments about how well, or poorly, those planning conditions have been monitored and enforced. Are any enforcement cases open and live?

Omagh Minerals Ltd holds a prospecting licence for 189 square kilometres in the southern Sperrins from Gillygooly to Lack, which is an area of outstanding natural beauty. Many sites have been identified for excavation well into the future and many of them are known locally by local surnames; one such is the Kerr vein site. People are fearful about the future of the landscape and tourism in the area and about the environment.

I invite the Minister to visit Cavanacaw to see the situation at first hand. Minister Sammy Wilson has met Omagh Minerals Ltd and local residents, and I am grateful for his interest in the matter. However, that interest would be enhanced greatly by a visit to the site.

As I said in my opening remarks, planning permission was secured in 1995, but it was only actualised in 2007 after one of the longest-running public inquiries ever. Local residents succeeded in securing numerous conditions to the planning permission, but they feel strongly that they have been abandoned by the Department of the Environment and its agencies, not least the Planning Service.

In a BBC news interview, Moe Lavigne, vice-president of the Glantas Gold Corporation, which owns Omagh Minerals Ltd, said that:

“Galantas will not just be flogging its gold to the world market. The leftover rock can be sold on to building and construction firms as aggregate, and there’s even silver and lead in the rock.”

It appears to local people that stealth quarrying has taken place and that this is more about quarrying than gold-mining. The confirmation that it contains silver and lead is yet more evidence that the rock, which should not have been moved off site, is contaminated; a fact that the Minister needs to address.

Omagh Minerals Ltd is seeking revised planning permission to allow 40 trucks in and out of the mine per day compared with one per day at present; it also asks for changes to the closure plan. If granted, that would allow the long-term stockpiling of millions of tons of aggregate, which is required for backfilling and restoration, for probable removal off site.

Many residents have come together to engage on a new course of action to ensure that any further planning applications by Omagh Minerals Ltd are refused. The grounds for refusal are based on many factors, the most important being the enforcement case, which is still open and which now covers 12 conditions in breach, with many additional conditions under scrutiny.

Other agencies are investigating the mine. There are various issues for the Health and Safety Executive regarding stockpiles and the security of the site and its entrance; Revenue and Customs is seeking the collection of the aggregate levy; the Crown Estate is reviewing the bond and restoration fund to reflect today’s costs but has refused to disclose the value of the bond to local residents; and the Environment Agency is investigating pollution and the contamination of rock removed from the gold mine.

Given the involvement of all those agencies, it is clear that much work has to be done to bring the gold mine back into line with Government policy, planning legislation, environmental standards, and the 1995 permission approval conditions. People in the area say that the situation has got out of control, and the lion’s share of responsibility for ensuring that it is brought back under control rests with the Department of the Environment.

People are emphasising that the mining operations at Cavanacaw are the shape of things to come, and they are worried about the extent of the damage that prospecting licences are doing in the southern Sperrins from Gillygooly to Lack and what they will do in the future. People have described the operations as stealth quarrying rather than gold-mining, and they are worried about it.

As I said already, Minister Sammy Wilson had a meeting with representatives from Omagh Minerals Ltd in early May. The Minister was advised that the company will rely on new planning permissions and revisions to existing planning permissions to safeguard and develop operations. Multiple planning breaches concerning the current mining of Kearney vein are under investigation, but local residents have learned, to their horror, that Omagh Minerals Ltd plans to excavate a second vein for which it does not have planning permission. Once again, Omagh Minerals Ltd is showing contempt for planning regulations, and the Planning Service has questions to answer.

If Omagh Minerals Ltd intends to open new veins or to carry out gold-mining or quarrying activities in the Sperrins, they must be required to apply for the relevant planning permissions in advance of the operations, not retrospectively. In my constituency, I hear that some people who are attached to the company are boasting that they need submit only a retrospective planning application or explain away the mining as exploration work. Omagh Minerals Ltd is not worried about the planners; in fact, its workers think that, by the time that the planners dither about with enforcement cases, for instance, the company can empty any pit. That is the type of comment that is being made in Omagh and West Tyrone by people who are associated with Omagh Minerals Ltd. The residents’ concerns deserve the highest possible hearing from the Department of the Environment.

There is a series of related issues, which I will not go into today. I am grateful for the attendance of MLAs from other constituencies who are interested in the issue, and I look forward to the contributions of other Members.