Communities Against the Injustice of Mining (CAIM) is an all-island network of and for communities affected by and resisting prospecting and extraction. We are a protective circle standing up for a life-sustaining world.
Our members include:
- Keep Tulla Untouched – an ad hoc voluntary action group set up in response to prospecting licences in areas around Tulla, Co. Clare. Prospecting licences are for gold, silver, barytes and base metals in one licensed area covering 52 townlands, and lead and zinc in a very large area further south. (Email: keeptullauntouched[at]gmail.com; Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and YouTube)
- Save the Environment of Navan Townlands (Meath)
- Save Inis Eoghain from Gold Mining (Donegal) (Facebook)
- Red Hills Action Against Mining (Cavan) (Facebook) and Cavan Mining Objection Group (Facebook). Please note: the Facebook pages of these two groups are currently not maintained, because the prospecting licenses west and east of Belturbet, Co. Cavan were surrendered some years ago by the mining companies. As there there are currently no active prospecting licenses in these areas in place, our social media isn’t active but we remain on alert, are monitoring the situation and we are actively working within CAIM. If you wish to make contact with us, please do so by contacting CAIM.
For more information on the mining threats and mining companies which affected communities are facing, see Mining in Ireland.
Mining causes significant impacts on local communities – the destruction of nature and biodiversity, air and water pollution, effects on people’s health and livelihoods, long-term impacts of industrialisation of rural areas, and last but not least community division. Our members are working to protect their communities from these impacts. For more information, see Get Involved.
Globally, and also on the island of Ireland, there is now a push to mine for minerals considered ‘critical’ for the energy transition, for example for solar panels and batteries. While there is an urgent need to move away from fossil fuel energy towards renewable energy, if the transition happens with the same profit-driven logic as our current energy system, it will reproduce the same injustices as the fossil fuel energy model. This current model mainly serves the high energy demands of the corporate and wealthy sector of the society, such as the arms trade, or for data centres (which are growing in Ireland).
A just energy transition on the island of Ireland must ensure everyone has access to energy, and must include and build community-led energy production models, where the communities benefit.
