Cavanacaw Gold Mine

Overview

Northern Ireland's only working gold mine, developed from a deposit first identified during 1980s exploration and still being worked today between opencast and underground methods, on ground that has drawn both investment and long-running local opposition.

History

Gold-bearing mineralisation at Cavanacaw was identified in the 1980s during regional exploration by Riofinex, the Irish exploration arm associated with Rio Tinto. Planning permission for opencast extraction was granted in 1995, and mining of the main Kearney trench began in the late 1990s, reaching its maximum permitted opencast depth of over 50 metres by 2012. The site has since been developed by Galantas Gold Corporation, which has worked to transition the mine underground to access deeper ore via the Kearney vein and other structures, completing over 3km of underground development and a trial stoping programme in 2024 using a narrow-vein longhole open stoping method. In September 2025, Galantas sold an 80% interest in the project to Ocean Partners UK Limited, retaining a 20% stake itself.

Geology

The Cavanacaw deposit sits within the Grampian Terrane and comprises a structurally controlled zone of quartz-sulphide mineralisation, with gold, silver and lead hosted in massive sulphides, quartz veins within a quartz breccia unit, and associated clay gouge along the Kearney vein structure.

Workings

Ore has been worked by both opencast methods, in the Kearney trench pit, and by underground development driving toward deeper, higher-grade ground, most recently using narrow-vein longhole open stoping.

Closure

Unknown.

What remains

Still an active mine site, combining a worked-out opencast pit with ongoing underground development.

An opencast pit over 50 metres deep at its maximum permitted extent, alongside surface plant and underground mine infrastructure serving the current workings.

Related mines

• Curraghinalt Gold Mine — The two main gold deposits in the Dalradian of County Tyrone, both found by 1980s exploration.

Disasters & major incidents

• Cavanacaw rockfall and water inrush, 2018
  July 2018 · Collapse / Roof Fall · 0 fatalities
  Over-charging with explosives brought down 150 tonnes of rock from an underground roadway roof at Cavanacaw Gold Mine, narrowly missing a worker, before the resulting unstable ground let surface water flood into the workings, further endangering the underground workforce.

Recorded claims

Individual factual claims, each attached to the source(s) that support it below. Where sources disagree, both are kept.

• Gold-bearing mineralisation at Cavanacaw was identified in the 1980s during exploration by Riofinex, the Irish exploration arm associated with Rio Tinto. ^1,2
• Planning permission for opencast gold extraction at Cavanacaw was granted in 1995, and mining of the Kearney trench began in the late 1990s, reaching its maximum permitted opencast depth of over 50 metres by 2012. ^2,3
• In 2008-09 hundreds of thousands of tonnes of rock were removed from the mine by lorry without the required planning consent; the Northern Ireland Ombudsman upheld local residents' complaints and three residents were awarded £10,000 each in compensation. ⁴
• Galantas Gold has worked to develop underground mining at Cavanacaw to reach deeper ore, completing a trial stoping programme in 2024 that mined and backfilled over 3,000 tonnes of mineralised material using a narrow-vein longhole open stoping method. ²
• Galantas Gold sold its remaining twenty per cent indirect interest in the Omagh gold project to Ocean Partners UK for five million dollars, the sale completing on 8 September 2026. About 3.26 million dollars of that settled debt Galantas owed Ocean Partners under a promissory note; Galantas had valued the interest at about 4.1 million dollars at 30 June. It now holds no equity in Omagh and has given up its right to convert the stake into a three per cent net smelter return royalty. ⁵
• The sale completed a restructuring that had already given Ocean Partners control: under an earlier agreement it converted about fourteen million dollars of existing debt into an eighty per cent stake in Flintridge Resources and Omagh Minerals, the Galantas subsidiaries that jointly hold the project. ⁵
• Underground development was paused in 2017 until the Police Service of Northern Ireland could increase the availability of anti-terrorism security for blasting; blasting was halted again in late 2019, mainly because of those limitations, and ore production was suspended in 2020 amid insufficient funding and the pandemic. Gold miners in Northern Ireland reached an agreement with government in 2021 providing free policing for the handling of explosives, but Galantas moved to reduce its exposure rather than commit further resources. ⁵

Photographs & further reading

Sources

1. (primary) Cavanacaw (Kearney trench; Kearney gold structure) — Mindat
2. (secondary) Omagh (Cavanacaw) Mine — Major Mines & Projects
3. (secondary) Gold mining comes to Tyrone — An Phoblacht/Republican News
4. (secondary) Cavanacaw goldmine - residents get £10,000 compensation for planning breaches — BBC News
5. (secondary) Galantas exits Omagh gold project in $5M deal — Mining.com

Record created: 20 August 2026 · Last researched: 10 September 2026