A proposal to build Britain's only commercial gold mine in Loch Lomond national park has been refused after councillors decided it would "devastate" the park's outstanding scenery.
Buoyed by record gold prices, the developers had hoped to mine up to five tonnes of gold worth around £110m, and a further 20 tonnes of silver, from an unworked mine at Cononish near Tyndrum in the north-eastern corner of the park.
Despite substantial local support, the application was narrowly rejected by the park's planning committee yesterday evening, by 12 votes to 10, after taking evidence and debating the proposal for more than five hours at a special hearing in Tyndrum village hall.
The developer, Scotgold, which raised more than £4.5m from Australian private investors for the project and believed it would be welcomed by local planners, is now expected to appeal to the Scottish government.
National park officials said the decision was "very tricky". Last week, the park's director of planning, Gordon Watson, claimed the project was of doubtful economic viability yet its vast waste dump, a dam holding 820,000 tonnes of ground rock "tailings", would permanently ruin the immediate area.
Mike Cantlay, the park's convenor and chair of the Scottish tourism authority VisitScotland, voted against the proposal.
He said: "Thriving communities in the national park are fundamental and this has been an especially difficult application to consider.
"The statutory aims of the national park are very clear: that we must give greater weight to our first aim, to conserve and enhance our natural heritage, therefore we can't balance the potential economic benefits against the certain devastating long-term impact on this spectacular scenery."
Prominent conservation and environment groups, including Scottish Natural Heritage, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the wilderness campaigners the John Muir Trust objected to the proposal. They said it would cause significant damage to local habitats and ruin the view for more than 10,000 climbers and hill-walkers who scale surrounding mountains each year, including Ben Lui.
However, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, which has statutory responsibility to protect fresh water, withdrew its objections as Scotgold satisfied it that the dam would not pollute the heavily-protected River Tay catchment, a crucial breeding ground for salmon.
Scotgold, which has the right to prospect for gold across a large area of the southern Highlands, has also found significant gold deposits in nearby areas. Profits from Cononish mine would have driven proposals for at least two other mines east of the park.
The only other working goldmine in the UK is in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, an opencast site near Cavanacaw which uses the same strata of rock at Cononish.
Chris Sangster, Scotgold's founder, was unavailable for comment but he said last week he was "shell-shocked" by the recommend to refuse the project, which received only one local objection and had been enthusiastically welcomed by Tyndrum community councillors.
He is furious that the park claims the mine is of dubious economic viability, accusing park officials of making "highly subjective" criticisms. Gold prices were yesterday at $1230 (£788) a Troy ounce, nearly three times the mine's $350 to $400 an ounce operating costs. No expert expects gold to anywhere fall near that price, Sangster insisted.
