Guidelines for Supervision

Where practicable, agreement must be obtained from landowners before entering onto lands for geological mapping, geochemical or geophysical surveying, trenching or drilling. There must be due regard for agricultural activities of landowners, and exploration programmes should be appropriately scheduled so as to cause minimum or no disturbance to such activities. Where disturbance of land or farming activity is expected e.g. during trenching or drilling, compensation must be agreed with the farmer or landowner beforehand. Where disturbance exceeds that which was agreed with the landowner and agreement on the damage cannot be achieved, Teagasc, or another agreed party, should act as arbitrator.

With respect to drilling or trenching, there should be a field supervisor whose name, company address and telephone number are given to the landowner. The field supervisor should be acquainted with relevant local regulations (control of crop or stock disease, quarantine regulations, etc.). The exploration company will accept responsibility for the actions of their contractors and of their subcontractors and of all persons employed by them in connection with the works, except for actions carried out expressly at the request of the owner or occupier of the land.

Field equipment, other than drill rigs and heavy excavation machinery needed to be left in place overnight, should not be left unattended in fields or by roadsides. On the completion of work, care should be taken to ensure that no equipment or materials are left behind which may cause injury to persons or animals, or cause pollution.

With regard to any drilling or excavation works, the field supervisor must, before work is initiated, discuss and identify with the landowner suitable entry points, watering points for stock, power and telephone cables, pipelines, etc. Particular attention should be paid to sensitive areas (crop harvesting, etc.), livestock management (calving, foaling, etc.), disease spread and spread of noxious weeds. Target areas should also be checked for sensitive ecological sites or any archaeological features and measures taken to prevent any damage.

The field supervisor must also inform the landowner as to the remedial measures that would be immediately undertaken in the event of water or land pollution, and inform the relevant landowners and appropriate regulatory bodies immediately in the event of any pollution incident. It should be noted that planning permission may be required for certain activities such as construction of access roads.