Ben Lui. The Cononish goldmine lies at the foot of the mountain, close to the main walking route to the summit
A campaigning outdoors charity has given a cautious welcome to revised plans for a goldmine in the Highlands.
The John Muir Trust said Scotgold Resources’ latest proposals would see a much smaller treatment works at the site near Ben Lui.
The Loch Lomond & the Trossachs National Park Authority turned down the original plans for reopening the Cononish goldmine, near Tyndrum. The Australian company behind the proposals gave notice it would appeal to the Scottish Government against the decision, but has now withdrawn the appeal.
Company bosses hope the new proposals will be more acceptable to the national park planners.
The John Muir Trust said it had been notified of Scotgold Resources’ intention to resubmit the goldmining plans, which indicated the tailings management works would be ‘approximately half the size’ of those in the original proposals. The plant deals with the excavated waste from the mine, which is in the foothills of the 1,130m (3,707ft) munro.
Local residents were broadly in favour of the development, but outdoors lobbyists, including the John Muir Trust and Mountaineering Council of Scotland opposed the reopening of the mine in the form planned by the company.
The Cononish mine was last used more than 11 years ago. Photo: Helen Wilkinson CC-BY-SA-2.0
Steven Turnbull, policy officer at the John Muir Trust, 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.”
The mine, under Beinn Chuirn, was last used more than 11 years ago but the world price of gold has risen to record levels, making the possible extraction of gold and silver from Cononish and a nearby mine on Beinn Udlaidh, just outside the national park boundary, economically viable.
A £600,000 regional selective assistance grant from to Scotgold Resources from Scottish Enterprise is conditional on planning consent being granted. The company says the new mining works would create 52 full-time jobs during construction and operation of the site.
