Getting test results mixed up maybe?

Sure don’t we owe it all to Onkel Angela anyway?

It’s not the governments to give away. They sell licenses, and whatever you find, is yours.

That really is a blind statement..all it needs is a few surveys to define the best track for gold machinery and a work force then the money starts flowing in straight away..its obviously worth while as the interest is massive

Where does the money start flowing in from and what is gold machinery? And if it’s that easy why aren’t you a billionaire?

@john,I think you need to play catch up as gold is becoming more expensive with global demand growing massively so no problem shifting it..I’m not going to list out machinery but if your really interested Google gold extraction machine for hours of reading..
Why aren’t I doing it….?where would I get finance but the government has access to funding

Are taking the p*ss? If the government owns it, who’s going to invest if the gov. take all the profits? You need to drill, which costs €500,000 per hole and you can miss gold by 5 meters so it takes more than a few surveys and a gold machine to take gold from the ground. All in it’s close to €5M before your ready to drill and that’s per site, regardless of gold being present. There’s also about a 1/10 strike rate and a further 1/10 are viable. You expect the Gov. to speculate with your taxes, do you?

Your really having problems understanding this aren’t you even though you have argued the point!!,the government would be doing all the work to recover the gold and they would collect tge money and distribute it accordingly..
Why did you ask about machinery or drilling process when you obviously seem to be a world class expert or more likely a armchair expert with the …..eh it was on the telly one night

Somebody’s been watching too much gold rush on discovery me thinks?

You seem to be having a difficulty understanding this. It’s speculative. Where will the government get money to survey and drill bearing in mind less than 1 in 100 sites are viable? They don’t know where the gold is, that’s why they sell the licenses. The government can’t try and find gold any more than they can invest your tax euros in apple or facebook shares.

John I just can’t talk with someone who refuses to read and understand what we are talking about without making up lies or going so far off what I said people would think your comment was ment for somewhere else..
If a company can do it so can the government..
and I would love to see where your figures cone from as they seem made up to considering they have identified places where there are gold veins

Who identified them? Oh yeah, the private companies. Who paid for the surveying? Private companies. I’m not saying they couldn’t do it, but if they tried and spent €100m on surveying and found nothing people would be pissed. As stated, the government can’t speculate with money meant for the running of the country.

Just like the oil and gas off the coast? wake up and smell the reality it won’t be Irish people that benefit from the gold found!

Again you miss my point the government should have done all the surveys I do understand we can’t tell them to f off after doing the work..surely the government should speculate seen as any profits would be returned into running the country

I think there is a medium in this. Why does govt take a small fee for a license. Instead, issue it to viable companies for nothing for a period, say 3 years, let the company use its skills and experience to speculate. After all if they wouldn’t be there if they thought not. If they hit something, after costs, say the govt takes 30% or so. Company benefits from not having to put up for the fee upfront and no risk to public money wasted.

I agree they should but any losses(possible and likely) would be born by the taxpayer and that would be majorly unpopular with the ordinary voter, especially in these times of austerity. That said one big find would cover any losses. It’s a catch 22.

I dunno John, surely as it is the company bears that cost as part of its risk. Surely the taxpayer doesn’t have to cover the cost of a failed exploration? I’m saying is if there are resources to be found, let them at it. Strike, pay a fair %, no strike, well the area benighted from some minor investment in the area while they were there.

Sorry John Walsh, was replying to the post above yours. Yours is a very good idea but I think your charge is a royalty. They would be able to write off any losses from previous failed explorations aswell. All in all yours is a good idea.

They had no machinery in the 1800s and they extracted lots of gold

They already do speculate on everything, maybe it’s time they spent money on something worth while.

Open cast mine – …. Lake Monaghan ……

Monaghan getting notions again.

The vast majority of exploratory wells/digs are fruitless. We don’t get to sell mining rights to a company who take on all the risk (along with their shareholders), and then if by some small chance they strike gold shift the goalposts and start arbitrarily taxing or nationalizing them.
They own the rights, they bought them.
This isn’t Argentina

We should have never sold the rights

If you don’t sell the rights, how do you propose to survey?
If you price the rights too high, company shareholders won’t tolerate persistent overpriced loss-making failed explorations.

We sure did all of it

I is going to be mined along with parts if Wicklow in the not to distant future but instead of the government setting up the mine and financing the extraction of the gold which not alone would it create massive employment the financial rewards would see the country out of recession but what we are doing is let outside partys do all the work get the gold and give us a few cents for our troubles which really is not worth our while..quick tip the company that’s going to extract the gold buy shares in it as they are playing down how much gold is there

So your saying socialize the profit and privatize the losses? Why should a company spend millions drilling in several locations, and once they find some gold in one, the government confiscates it? Wheres the incentive? The government couldn’t afford to finance the explorations so they sell licenses.

No John, clearly that is not what he was saying.

And Ireland has money and enough expertise to keep this in house.

@john.you really are having major trouble follow this aren’t you and I’m sorry I can’t make it any simpler when you take what iv said and just make up a lie…tut tut

In fairness to John, with the way public money is already wasted in this country I can see his point. Imagine the reaction if a headline came out that the gov spent €50-100m in a failed venture in oil speculation, while cutting social, educational and Heath funding.

I do see your side to John and agree to the most part but I still think there is more that could be done to ensure the country benefits from any resources removed from it either running the whole operation or royalties as mentioned.
Gold is very very saught after especially for use on electronic goods phones PCs etc so we already have the upper hand “we have what they need badly” we look at all the offers and see which is most profitable

It’s the government’s job to govern – not to dig for gold.

@ bill,its also their job to look after the people and the countries affairs but they don’t really do that so maybe they might be better suited making money than spending everyone else’s with 200k a year wage

John Duggan: ‘socialise the profits and privatise the losses’ ha ha – you obviously don’t follow the news. Here in pixieland we privatise profits and socialise losses, the bigger the speculation the better. Hey why not let the private companies outsource the mines to India? Oh wait the gold is here! They should be taxed to the hilt (minimum 85%) if they want the privilege of taking natural resources. And by the way shareholders don’t dig for gold, they hire working people to do it.