Possible zinc mine in Caherconlish

flutered

the rumour mill has it that the drilling is been started from the roadstone quarry in ballyneety, it is to be all underground, thus no damage to any land or buildings thus no payouts to anyone.

veyron

very clever !! any start date planned or anything about jobs?//

ABEasy

flutered wrote: »

the rumour mill has it that the drilling is been started from the roadstone quarry in ballyneety, it is to be all underground, thus no damage to any land or buildings thus no payouts to anyone.

That absolutely incorrect, no activity in roadstone (except a bit of theft and arson)

Tonka

hello everyone , I'm an Irish mining engineer and have worked at Lisheen, Tara and Kilroot mines.

The Pallas Green is an exploration project. It is not a mining project. Exploration is the finding of minerals in the ground.
Mining is the getting to and excavating of a commercially viable mineral deposit. That is; it is worth the time and effort to dig the dirt out of the ground and mill it, ship it and sell it and still make a profit.
Milling is were the rock extracted by mining is processed to extract the valuable minerals.

To determine if the rock beneath your feet is economical for mining, requires many years of exploration.

There have been many more exploration companies start up and fail to find economic deposits, or find deposits that are not viable due to global demand and price of the mineral. Exploration is risky and just like playing poker, its all about confidence and risk aversion.

Exploration would start as a desktop study or/and low tech prospecting. Prospecting is an art and prospectors tend to just have a "knack" or an eye for finding samples or possible locations for minerals. A prospector finding a lump of mineral does not mean a mine is going to be built.

From prospecting and desk studies and exploration company will usually focus on the most likely target area to begin further more detailed exploration.

Further detailed exploration includes, (from macro scale down)regional magnetic aerial survey, surface seismic survey, localised detailed aerial survey, soil sampling, water sampling, chipping of exposed bedrock, regional drilling. If regional drilling hits an interesting formation "step out drilling" (say on a 400m spacing for zinc) will occur around the initial drill hole. If a neighbouring hole hits the same formation as predicted the confidence in the formation increases. Depending on various factors the exploration may continue step out drilling to find the extents of the formation, after so many holes "infill drilling" may occur. Infill drilling is as it says on the tin, between holes in the step out pattern more holes are drilled. Depending on the type of mineral, formation, value of mineral and what level of confidence investors want, the infill spacing may vary from 200m to 30m.

That's not to say a drill rig will start drilling every 30m on surface. Drill rigs usually will sit at one site and drill several holes fanned out to intercept the formation may 1-400m below surface. intercepting the formation at the infill spacing.

Drilling is not the end of exploration. The samples recovered from the drill hole is carefully loggied by geologists, cut and any interesting samples tested.

The more exploration is done on a deposit the more confidence there is to determine weather it is (a)worth continuing the exploration progam , (b)start the economic studies for a commercial mine, or (c) walk away as there is nothing there.

Exploration is a risky business and the big companies tend not to get involved until the confidence in the mineral being there is increased/ ie the risk is reduced. Which is why most initial exploration discoveries are made by junior exploration companies ie Minco, Belmore, Connemara. All exploration companies have to generate funds based upon positive results from exploration activity.

Exploration has to be viewed optimistically, rosey-tinted, so exploration companies tend to talk up their activity.

Xstrata and Teck formed joint ventures with the Irish Junior companies, and eventually bought out the juniors shares in the licenses as the majors started to see confidence in Pallas Green increase.

Mines are costly things to develop. We're not talking about Jimmy Joe and has JCB and Massey Ferguson. (though Jimmy Joe will have been busy during exploration work, and continue to have work during mining) One project in Europe I worked on required 110millions dollars worth of mining equipment and we hired 250 miners within 9 months. Every mine is different, and I have no idea what Xstrata and Teck are looking at.

Galmoy mine is closed, Lisheen is closing in a couple of years and Tara is closing circa 2018. Tara along has about 700+ people employed. For every person working at a mine there are 6 indirect jobs outside of the mine, hoteliers, laundries, hardware suppliers, delivery drivers, environmental and health and safety regulators, IT support, office supplies, grounds keepers, and plenty of work for Jimmy Joe and his tractor.

At the time of its construction Lisheen mine was probably the best example of environmentally friendly mining operation in Europe. The Lisheen Deposit was discovered in April 1990 and development of the mine began in 1997. In September 1999 the first (production) ore was brought to the surface.

So it took 7 years of exploration from initial discovery to actually construction of a mine to begin. Then it took 2 years to access the mineral underground, build the mill and actually start shipping mineral off site. During the construction period local roads were upgraded to accommodate the increased traffic.

During exploration in the late 1960s and early 1970s identified sporadic occurrences of lead and zinc in the larger area around Lisheen known as the Rathdowney Trend.

Teck, Xstrata/Glencore, and to a lessor extent Lundin are at advanced stages of exploration and verging on economic studies to determine if a mine is viable.

the steps in developing a mine consists of economic/conceptual studies based on a lot of assumptions. If it passes the big picture economics it goes to prefeasibility then feasibility then detailed design. Between feasibility and detailed design planning permission is submitted. Prior to detailed mine design baseline studies are conducted, including such things as, air, dust, vibration, traffic, water, weather, infrastructure, archaeology, social impact, etc the baseline studies are used to predict impacts of mining on the area. Mitigation measures are proposed before work starts. in addition to the planning application an detailed environmental impact assessment is conducted. During the planning application stakeholders and the public will have a chance to publically voice opposition or support for the project. its good practise to engage stakeholders well before any detailed design work is undertaken.

Why is there little information about weather a mine is to be developed? The companies to not want to get false hopes up that it will happen, zinc prices may crash and make mine development uneconomical. Pallas Green is a small project for these global miners so its unlikely to feature much on their websites.

Ireland is blessed with some of the largest zinc deposits in Europe. What is Irelands largest export by tonnes?.....zinc. Even I was surprised when I heard that. There are thousands of historic/disused mines in Ireland. Modern exploration and mining companies and governments have learnt from these and others and apply best available practise for protecting the environment and safety of workers.

I doubt the companies are buying up major landholdings, mine sites need to be substantially large than a couple of Jimmy Joes acres, they may have bought a couple of acres to park up drill rigs etc. Pre-planning application is the time to buy up surface land. And the state owns the minerals under the soil, so although the underground formation may extend over 100s of acres the surface mine site will be much less than that. Until the company have detailed designs for a mien they do not know exactly were the portal for the underground access will be, so they are not going to start buying up land without knowing the exact location they need. In order to avoid a land grab by speculators (just like the gold rush!) the companies will be keeps they cards to their chest during mine feasibility work.

fleabag

That's a great post, very interesting. Glad this thread has come to life again as I notice that the exploration seems to intensified around Caherconlish, a good few rigs now within a couple of miles of the village and quite close together. They've been there a good while too. Does this mean that they have identified a possible big deposit??

Tonka

fleabag wrote: »

Does this mean that they have identified a possible big deposit??

most likely they are conducting step out or infill drilling. Using the same drill pad for multiple holes means a rig stays at that site longer instead of upping sticks, trundling over 30m and setting up again. This practise reduces the ground disturbance and helps with logistics of servicing the rig.

Underpaid Mike

Any new updates on this lads ?

Johan_ie

Looks like the drilling rigs between caherconlish and herbertstown have packed up and moved on.

Poxyshamrock

Yup, my cousin was let go two weeks ago after three years on the job.

gctest50

Poxyshamrock wrote: »

Yup, my cousin was let go two weeks ago after three years on the job.

did he get any feedback on the samples - that he'd hopefully be busy soon again ?

seaniefr

Anyone got any news on this?

Underpaid Mike

Nothing but further delays
Last thing I heard was there might be a decision in June but thats to be taken with a grain of salt

Reputable Rog

Underpaid Mike wrote: »

Nothing but further delays
Last thing I heard was there might be a decision in June but thats to be taken with a grain of salt

Or sand.

Paddico

So did Mining every get the go ahead in Caherconlish/Pallas

einn32

Paddico wrote: »

So did Mining every get the go ahead in Caherconlish/Pallas

Not that I know of. Mining globally has taken a hit especially Iron ore. I think most companies are cost cutting now.

Glencore had full control over it the last I heard. It would be a big boost for the area if it did happen.

Hunter456

seen two drill's pass me today on the caherline bog-line road and one has being set up on the left hand side, don't know where the second one went. so hopefully things are starting to pick up will be great for the job front in this area.

mastershake

Counted five rigs by the main road to Caherline. Extensive exploration drilling by the look of things. What is that they're looking for here, Zinc?

Hunter456

ya they looking to see first how much is in one area and then to the next area.

NotCarrotRidge

They are drilling great guns at the moment.  It's a little surprising, because Glencore (the owner) doesn't do exploration at all.  However, it is one of the best zinc exploration projects in the world, and zinc has been extremely buoyant over the last 18 months or so.  They may be trying to add on some good news flow with a view to selling, as there had been nothing over the last few years, so they want re-generate interest.  As long as they sell it to someone with the ability to develop it properly, that's not necessarily a bad thing.  I don't think Glencore has ever opened a mine, but I could be wrong.  At the same time, Xstrata (purchased by Glencore in 2013, which is how Glencore now has the licences), has opened mines in the past, and I presume they still have at least some of those people on staff.
Fingers crossed for some good news.

Car99

A long slow game this zinc lead exploration lark. They're in caherconlish on and off for over 10 years now. Looks like Canadian Outfit Group 11 and Glencore might be making a go of it eventually

https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/glencore-ventures-to-ireland-for-zinc/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.groupelevenresources.com/_resources/presentations/corporate-presentation.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiJ89nL8LH0AhXEQUEAHZrlDZAQFnoECAMQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1ubhVAyT9G4ayZXL87KYPV

einn32

Group 11 have a presentation on the project from June 2021 on their website. Seems to be a very promising zinc deposit.