It’s time for an update, following on from last week’s post about “minerals for Palantir.” Go ahead and check that out if you want a full breakdown with a resource library of links.
But right now, it’s time for a quick overview to launch the roll-out of BTF’s very first action steps for our emerging solidarity campaign with the amazing land defenders of Save Our Sperrins!
To recap: Palantir CEO Alex Karp's senior advisor, Jacob Helberg, was appointed to the U.S. State Department to turn their ideas into policy. One result is Pax Silica, an international partnership program to secure the supply chains for the entire technology stack of weaponized AI. This includes both gold itself, and a variety of so-called "critical" minerals that are typically structurally dependent on the profitability of gold mining.
Orion Resource Partners, a massive U.S.mine finance firm, is a key global partner for Pax Silica. Orion's subsidiary Dalradian are planning to source "critical minerals" from a gold mine in the beautiful and ecologically critical Sperrin Mountains in the North of Ireland. These minerals are “critical” for surveillance, targeting, and the escalation of AI warfare, despite greenwashing claims to the contrary.
“Working with our US-based parent company Orion Resource Partners, we have already invested more than $400 million to date in multi-mineral exploration and project development at the site, which, in addition to gold, silver, and copper, will provide access to critical minerals such as antimony, tellurium, bismuth, and cobalt—elements for which we currently source almost exclusively from China and Congo.”
For over a decade, Save Our Sperrins has fought to stop Orion and Dalradian from destroying their land, water and futures. In the process, Save Our Sperrins has built solidarity with front line communities around the world.
Right now, a supposedly "public" inquiry into the proposed Dalradian mine is underway, and the people fighting for their land, water, and futures are being shut out by rules and processes that seem to be skewed to give Dalradian, Orion, and the war machine exactly what they want - despite the fact that the planning application for the mine has proved, after two weeks of hearings, utterly unfit to be considered at all.
There’s a growing sense that this application was pushed to the inquiry before it was ready. Basic questions are still being asked. Key information is missing. And when pressed, we’re hearing things like, “We can deal with this during the inquiry.” But here’s the problem: this is the inquiry. If information isn’t there now, when exactly is it supposed to be there? And that brings us to the biggest issue of the week, and that’s the lack of information…
….So where does that leave us? Honestly, with more questions than answers. Ane one big one sitting over everything: how did this application get to this stage without the basic information in place?
The struggle to stop Dalradian, Orion, and their powerful backers, as Dr. V’cenza Cirefice noted in her recent publication Where Extractivism Meets the Military Industrial Complex: Céad Míle Fáilte to the War Economy in Ireland, has global significance. We can all take part in solidarity efforts, whether or not we currently have any connections to Ireland.
Sign the Petition
Sign the Open Letter of Solidarity
Donate to Save Our Sperrins
Follow & support Save Our Sperrins on Instagram and Facebook
Listen to The Sperrins Podcast
Submit the interest form to plug in!
Check out this amazing video by Sensitive Visuals ❤️🔥
This is a struggle for everyone, but wouldn’t it be nice if so-called “Irish Americans” did our part for once? Especially since our diaspora networks are a big part of the problem here? 👀