Northern Ireland has more geological diversity in 14,000 square kilometres than any other place on earth. The Mineral Development Act (Northern Ireland) of 1969 is a well-established mining code that governs the extractive sector in the region, which includes over 160 active quarries, an underground salt mine and a small open pit mine that produces gold.

Part of the United Kingdom, Northern Ireland uses the pound sterling and is self-governed by the Northern Ireland Executive and the Northern Ireland Assembly based at Stormont in Belfast. Northern Ireland’s population of approximately 1.8 million people live in six counties and are largely employed in the public sector, manufacturing, real estate and wholesale and retail trade.

The Tyrone Project is located in the counties of Tyrone and Londonderry, and benefits from its proximity and access to regional infrastructure:

• The Curraghinalt Deposit is accessible by a number of paved highways and local roads, and is 127 kilometres from Belfast, an approximately 1.5 hour drive
• Private roads and farm tracks provide access within the property
• The nearby town of Omagh and the village of Gortin provide lodging and local labour
• The principal power substation is 9 kilometres from the property
• There is abundant local water supply

A Brief History of Gold in Ireland
Prehistoric Ireland is famed for its incredible gold artifacts. Metalworking and mining for copper and gold in Ireland dates to the Irish Bronze Age (approximately 2500 BC to around 700 BC), and artifacts of prehistoric Irish goldsmithing are exhibited in the national museum in Dublin.

Gerard Boate was the first to record finding gold in the area of the Tyrone Project, writing in his Natural History of Ireland in 1657 of nuggets found in the Moyola River, located northeast of Curraghinalt. In the 1930s, a British company reported plans for alluvial gold mining, but very little work appears to have occurred.

The Tellus Project
Funded by the Department of Enterprise Trade and Investment and the Northern Ireland Programme for Building Sustainable Prosperity and managed by the Geological Survey of Northern Ireland, the Tellus Project is the most concentrated geological mapping project ever undertaken in Northern Ireland. One of the most comprehensive regional data gathering exercises in Europe, the Tellus Project conducted low-level airborne geophysical surveys over 86,000 kilometres and collected nearly 30,000 soil, stream-sediment and stream-water samples for analysis.

The collated data from this project has produced new geochemical and geophysical maps that will extend and deepen the knowledge of the geology, soils, natural resources and environment of Northern Ireland. This information supports the exploration for, and development of, mineral and hydrocarbon resources, informs land-use planning and provides a countrywide environmental baseline. It has also renewed interest in mineral prospecting, and new prospecting permits for precious and base metals have been issued as a result.

Fun Facts about Northern Ireland

• Bushmills is the world’s oldest whiskey distillery
• Titanic was built in Northern Ireland
• The ejector-seat, portable heart defibrillator and pneumatic tire were all invented in Northern Ireland
• Home to agricultural engineer and inventor Harry Ferguson
• Short Bros, the world’s first aviation company, was based in Belfast (now Bombardier owned)
• More than one-third of all U.S. presidents had ancestral origins in Northern Ireland