Lisheen Mine

Lisheen Mine is a lead and zinc mine located between the villages of Moyne and Templetuohy in County Tipperary, Ireland.[1] In the Rathdowney Trend Lisheen is an underground mine where the Lisheen deposit lies at an average depth of 170 metres below surface.

Accidents and Incidents

The Lisheen Mine has had two fatal accidents in two years. First in April 2011 and second in on April 4th 2013 when a roof collapsed, in each case a man died.

History

The Lisheen Deposit was discovered in April 1990 by Murray Hitzman who at the time was working for Chevron. A full feasibility study was conducted by SRK, Kilborn, and Kelsey Engineering and development of the mine began in 1997. In September 1999 the first (production) ore was brought to the surface and in December the first shipment of Zinc concentrates departed from the Port of Cork. Lisheen is expected to produce approximately 4.83 million dry metric tonnes of zinc and lead concentrates over the estimated 14-year lifespan of the mine.[2]

The mine is accessed via a 1.5 kilometre long decline, at -15%, 6.3 metres wide by 5 metres high. Underground drilling rigs bore holes in the ore face, which are charged with explosives and fired. The resultant broken ore is removed by large Load Haul Dump (LHD) machines and loaded into trucks which transport the ore to the crusher. The ore is first emptied onto 'grizzly' bars which prevent oversized material from entering the crushing chamber before being fed into the underground crusher. Approximately 6,300 tonnes of ore grade material are transported daily via a conveyor system from the mine to surface where it is stored in a covered stockpile of approximately 12,000 tonnes live capacity prior to processing in the Concentrator plant. Following various process the concentrate is then trucked south to Cork for onward shipment to various customers.

The mine is currently owned and operated by Vedanta Resources Zinc International, being acquired from Anglo American in 2011. [3]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.lisheenmine.ie/
  2. ↑ Boyle, Pat (2006-08-05). "Lisheen mine operator sees zinc profits up tenfold". Irish Independent. Independent News And Media. Retrieved 2009-03-09.
  3. ↑ http://www.vedanta-zincinternational.com/operations/lisheen-mines/. Missing or empty |title= (help)

See also


Coordinates: 52°44′52″N 07°40′24″W / 52.74778°N 7.67333°W / 52.74778; -7.67333


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