Vol. 524 No. 2
157 Mr. Durkan asked the Minister for the Marine and Natural Resources the recent evidence of commercially viable mineral discoveries; his plans for the development of these; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [22300/00]
The most recent result of a commercially viable mineral discovery in the State was the entry into production in September 1999 of the zinc and lead mine at Lisheen in County Tipperary. At full production its output of zinc in concentrates, combined with that of Tara in County Meath and Galmoy in County Kilkenny, will rank Ireland as sixth in the world.
In addition to this new mine, a planning application has been made to mine additional reserves discovered at Galmoy. Moreover, I recently issued an additional mining licence for Tara Mines and have received an application for a new lease to work a substantial extension to that orebody which was identified as a result of intensive exploration effort. Although there are other encouraging results from ongoing exploration, particularly for zinc, it is too early to say whether these will lead to commercial developments.
There is a strong international interest in investing in minerals prospecting in this country. I am committed to ensuring that the investment climate for prospecting and mining is kept competitive and will use the results of the current examination by my Department of comparative rates of royalty and tax in other mining jurisdictions to fine-tune our system to that end.
