Rundale

V’Cenza Cirefice

This article is based on a talk I gave at an event in September 2025, organised by Slí Eile, an anti-capitalist environmental group in Ireland. The event made important connections between anti-imperialism, anti-militarism, and environmentalism. I spoke about the links between the ramping up of extractivism, particularly mining, and militarism across Ireland, north and south. This article also developed out of initial research with Sinéad Mercier, and draws on some collective research done by Chicago Irish for Palestine.

I also write as part of CAIM (Communities Against the Injustice of Mining) a network of grassroots communities across Ireland resisting mineral extraction. Set up in 2021 CAIM has been building solidarity and collaborations between frontline communities from the Sperrins, Donegal, Leitrim, Connemara, Clare, Wicklow, Meath, and Cavan.

Recent developments such as the Planning and Development Act 2024  in the South of Ireland, and the UK’s Critical Raw Minerals Strategy opens the doors to ramped up extraction for “critical minerals” across Ireland, but who exactly are these minerals critical for? As discussions of increased military spending gain traction across Europe, and Irish neutrality is threatened, the links between the European mining boom impacting Ireland and militarisation are investigated.

While US war planes fly through and refuel at Shannon and Aldergrove (some of them bound for the illegal war in Iran), a mining boom across Ireland could mean the metals that built them will be fed from Irish land. The war economy is rooted in mines in extractive zones, especially in the Global South, but this is happening closer to home.

F-35 jets, drones, nuclear weapons, missiles, bombs, bullets are all made with minerals and metals, like cobalt, lithium, tungsten, tellurium, which are ripped from specific places and communities, leaving a trail of destruction and violence even before they are transformed into weapons. These minerals are also essential for surveillance tech, AI and digital warfare, and the militarisation of borders. Mining corporations extract minerals, arms manufacturers turn them into weapons, and financial institutions like pension funds and private equity firms grease the wheels of this process.

More recently, Chicago Irish for Palestine and Save our Sperrins have been working on a divestment campaign, to get pension funds in the US to divest from Orion mining finance, the ultimate owner of Dalradian gold who are trying to mine in the Sperrins. But the link between extractivism and militarism goes much deeper than this.

Martial mining cycle

Communities on the frontlines around the world highlight the violence of extraction and violence of warfare and conflict are inseparable. Daniel Selywn’s work with the London Mining Network has highlighted a marital mining cycle. This cycle demonstrates that militarism and extractivism are totally interdependent systems, war and militarism are defining features of the extractive economy.

At the same time, Martial Mining highlights that extractivism is a militarised process (dependent on violently extracting from ecologies and communities while squashing dissent). Militarised responses at mine sites and along supply chains are used to secure critical minerals. Military and colonial techniques are used to map and access minerals and then used to displace communities and violently repress resistance. At the same time militarism is itself an extractive process (reliant on huge material footprints while causing ecological and climate breakdown). 

Communities who resist extractivism often face repressive militarised responses. Work on the social engineering of extraction demonstrates the militarising of new extractive frontiers is straight from colonial and military playbooks. This is also the case in Ireland, where communities in the Sperrins have been resisting gold mining plans for around 10 years. These communities have faced divide and conquer and counterinsurgency tactics (with the aim to buy a social licence to operate by sponsoring local community groups), as well as threats, intimidation, surveillance and selective policing.

Irish facilitative context

The peripheries of Europe are being sacrificed in what’s been called a “European Mining Boom”. Ireland is a hotspot within this development.  Around one quarter of the land, North and South is concessioned for mineral prospecting. This includes targets like copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, lithium and gold. Since the 1960’s the government in the South has been extremely facilitative to global mining investment, while after the Good Friday Agreement, and the double transition to peace and neoliberalism, the government in the North has followed the same path. The government, mining industry and academia are intertwined, creating a scaffolding to support and incentivise extractive industries.

Extractive companies have shaped the government’s policy on mining, with the chief geologist of the Anglo-Australian mining company Rio Tinto (known for human rights violations) sitting on the advisory committee of iCrag. Bodies such as Geological Survey Ireland and Enterprise Ireland have been holding an Irish Pavilion at the mining conference PDAC (Prospecting and Developers Association Canada) since 2016, with a forum called “Ireland open for Business”.

Policies of recent years have turned their focus on “securing critical minerals”. In December 2022, the Dublin government released a policy statement on mining and the green transition, noting a need for Ireland to ramp up production of critical minerals. The Planning and Development Act 2024 and EU Critical Raw Minerals Act are about the fast-tracking of ‘strategic development projects’ and the restriction of public protest against them, these will include minerals exploration and mining. This act is about ramped up mining in the EU but also at the same time the Global South. The Irish Government’s Policy Statement states that mining will be facilitated to achieve net-zero emission and in a context of the Climate Action Plan. The Critical Raw Minerals Act similarly promotes mining as a centrepiece of climate action and essential to the European Green Deal.

London Mining Network, along with Save our Sperrins and other movements highlight the 2026 UK Government’s “critical mineral strategy” would fuel injustice and have disastrous consequences for communities and ecologies in the North of Ireland and globally.

Greenwashing

New waves of extractivism globally are being justified through narratives of green transitions and national security. But in our extractive capitalist economic system it’s only about expanding resource frontiers to add more materials to the ever-growing economy. Within this context both the military and global mining industry are seeking to greenwash their operations. The green mining myth has been frequently debunked, and now too the so-called “ green military transition”.

The global mining industry, including Dalradian, are pushing hard to position itself as the saviour of the climate crisis, however, a closer look at what’s happening tells a different story. A recent Global Justice Now report reveals over half of minerals designated as ‘critical’ by the UK play ‘no major role’ in the green transition instead mining of them is driven in a large way by militarisation.

The term ‘strategic’ or ‘critical’ minerals is conflated with transition minerals. However, the term strategic minerals generally refer to country-specific concerns around supply shortages, either for economic reasons or the arms trade. The term ‘critical minerals’ was developed by the US military to describe minerals that were scarce on US soil but essential for warfare. The EU Commission sees green energy and war as interlinked. In the words of former EU Commissioner for the internal market, Thierry Breton in 2023, “No batteries without lithium, no wind turbines without rare earths, no ammunition without tungsten…”

In fact, the Green New Deal’s Critical Minerals Regulation does not distinguish “the relevance of a raw material for the green and digital transition” from “defence and space applications.” As Corporate Europe Observatory points out, “there are currently no provisions in the CRM legislation or at national level to differentiate between uses nor to prioritise uses for the energy transition.”

The EU’s own forecasts suggest that with the race to net-zero, demand for rare earth minerals will increase 6-fold by 2030, and demand for lithium 12-fold by 2030 and 90-fold by 2050.  Are these materials socially necessary? Many do not end up in green technologies and alternatives exist. A recent study demonstrated that demand for lithium could be reduced by up to 90% with increased recycling, reduced battery size, and a mass scale up in public transport.  In fact, based on a scenario put forth by the International Energy Agency, it is possible to facilitate a green transition without the need for increasing mineral production.

Already in Ireland there are prospecting licences for Lithium. Blackstairs Lithium Ltd are planning prospecting through the Avalonia Project across counties Carlow and Wicklow. Protect Moylisha Hill are a community group resisting these plans. Across the island communities are resisting and in 2021 CAIM (communities against the injustice of mining) was formed as a network for these grassroots struggles.

Dalradian Gold have tried to greenwash their mine even before critical minerals were mentioned. It is important to note that Dalradian have been taken to the Advertising Standards Authority over claims that there are silver and copper deposits that will be used for renewable energy. This was investigated and proven false in 2021. The conflation of critical mineral and transition mineral is often used, however, neither gold, silver or copper are listed as “critical minerals” by the UK.

Documents submitted for the public inquiry, as late as October 2023, into the proposed gold mine list gold, copper and tellurium (despite tellurium not appearing in their planning application), all three are used in the manufacture of the F-35 fighter jet, currently used to bomb Gaza and Iran. Meanwhile, Orion, the ultimate owner of Dalradian, met with the genocidal Israeli State to explore investments and advanced technologies for the critical minerals industry.

Dalradian note that tellurium, “is the critical or strategic mineral of greatest significance” at their site in the Sperrins. Tellurium is essential to the imaging, tracking, and targeting technologies that have raised serious concerns about remote warfare (including the killing of a convoy of World Central Kitchen aid workers in Gaza in 2024). Chicago Irish for Palestine have highlighted that current systems that use tellurium include the RQ-21 Blackjack unmanned aerial system and Raytheon’s Multi-Spectral Targeting System.

Invest NI have given £19.66 million pounds of public money to the companies manufacturing parts for these jets, like Moyola engineering in Castledawson. In 2014 Invest NI also gave £326,000 of public money to Dalradian. Militarism and extractivism are both key priorities for the government in the North . With the public inquiry into Dalradian’s proposed gold mine in the Sperrins set to resume in April 2026, it’s important to reflect on the narratives around critical minerals which shape the company’s justification for their plans.

U.S. Imperial Interests

The U.S. has taken a strong interest in mining in Ireland. The U.S. National Defence Authorization Act for 2024 directed the Secretary of Defence (now Secretary of War) to secure critical minerals from “reliable sources” and has added Australia and the United Kingdom (including Northern Ireland) to the list of countries eligible to receive priority funds for critical mineral projects. On the 4^th of February 2026, the UK and U.S. signed a Memorandum of Understanding on critical minerals in Washington DC. This outlines a commitment to “intensify cooperative efforts to accelerate the secure supply of critical minerals and rare earths necessary to support the manufacturing of defence and advanced technologies and their respective industrial bases. This includes leveraging existing policy tools in both countries.”

U.S. interests havewritten to the Northern Ireland executive pressuring them to make a decision on Dalradian’s application, including the US ambassador to the UK. In the U.S. Congress, the Friends of Ireland Caucus, initially established to enforce the North of Ireland’s double transition of peace and neoliberalism has been reactivated. Four U.S. lawmakers part of this Caucus and Critical Minerals Caucus and the former disgraced British Ambassador to the United States, Peter Mendelson, have written to North’s government urging them to approve Dalradian’s plans, they have warned that “delays to the [Dalradian mine] project risk driving away foreign capital,” and insisting President Trump appoint a special envoy to intervene.  At the same time the U.S. stop funding the International Fund for Ireland, responsible for peacebuilding projects.

The links between Dalradian and far right politics are also documented. Oscar Lewnowski funded Orion as an offshoot from the Red Kite Group investment firm. This firm was founded by Lewnowski and UK businessman Mike Farmer, who is heavily involved in far-right politics. His son manages the UK chapter of Turning Point, a right-wing student group set up in the United States with controversial links to white supremacists, founded by Charlie Kirk. Kirk’s widow has made news recently over visits to North of Ireland to set up a branch of Turning Point.

The resistance in the Sperrins is globally significant, holding back Dalradian is about more than stopping mining but about resisting the U.S Empire. The amazing work of Save our Sperrins to stop this project for more than 10 years represents a real blow to the entire geopolitical order and the use of Ireland as a sacrifice zone and site to facilitate U.S. imperialism. Our anti-imperial struggle and resistance to Empire must include solidarity with communities on the frontlines of extractivism, especially those in the Sperrins.

Building Coalitions

We need to build strong coalitions between anti-extractivism and climate justice movements, taking on the military industrial complex and standing in solidarity with communities whose lands are being sacrificed for the material conditions of war and genocide. Particularly as often these communities are facing militarised responses to their resistance. Nico Edwards argues we need action to foster 4 Ds; demilitarisation, decriminalisation, decarbonisation and decolonization as solutions to the harms of militarism, criminalisation, extractivism and colonialism. I agree that these should be central to both anti-militarism and anti-extractivism movements in Ireland.

Join Slí Eile, Save Our Sperrins, CAIM, and global networks such as Yes to Life No to Mining to stop the extractivism feeding the military industrial complex.