IGA LECTURE

Dublin - Wednesday 5th February 2014 Cork – Wednesday 12th February 2014

Gerry Stanley (GSI) will present a lecture:

Ireland’s Historic Mine Sites

Venue:

Dublin - GSI, Beggars Bush, Haddington Road, Dublin 2.

Cork - Ted Nevill Laboratory, Cork Enterprise Centre, North mall, Cork.

Time:

Dublin - Tea/ Coffee & Chats - 6:00pm Lecture - 6:30pm

Cork - Lecture - 6:00pm

IRISH GEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Ireland’s Historic Mine Sites

Ireland has a rich mining history dating back to the Bronze Age. The Geological Survey of Ireland’s (GSI) minerals localities database, known as Minlocs, has over 5,000 entries which include both metallic and non-metallic commodities. Of these entries almost 1,500 are for metallic minerals and over 450 are described as mines. Of the 450 mines listed in Minlocs some 220 had production of either metals (for example lead or copper), non-metals (for example, gypsum used in the manufacture of plaster) or coal. Many of the deposits that are described as mines were often trials – an excavation into the ground exploring for minerals. The closed mines can be grouped into five classes according to the mineral worked and the time when they operated:

  1. Underground and surface mining operations for coal since the 18th Century.
  2. Workings for non-metals prior to the 1920s.
  3. Metal bearing veins worked for the most part prior to the 20th Century – but some workings operated into the 1950s.
  4. Modern workings for non-metals (latter half of 20th Century).
  5. Modern metal operations mainly from the latter half of the 20th Century.

From 2006 to 2008 GSI, in cooperation with the EPA and the Exploration and Mining Division (EMD), carried out the most extensive review of these mine sites with a view to documenting the environmental and safety issues at each of the sites. This talk will present an overview of that work, outline the field work undertaken and describe the way in which the different sites have been assessed from an environmental and safety perspective.

Gerry Stanley

Gerry has a BSc in geology from UCD, an MSc in geology from Acadia University in Canada and another MSc (in Mining Engineering) from the Camborne School of Mines in the UK.

Gerry worked in the minerals industry as an exploration geologist, geophysical consulting and minerals development. He joined the Geological Survey of Ireland (GSI) in 1984 and worked on minerals databases and mineral exploration regulation. Gerry now heads up the Minerals Programme where he looks after the GSI’s minerals databases; the Survey’s work on aggregate potential mapping; carries out work relating to Ireland’s historic mines; promotes inward investment to Ireland for minerals exploration and development; and carries out minerals related research. Gerry is President of the Institute of Geologists of Ireland; a Life Honorary Member of the Irish Association for Economic Geology; and a committee member of the Geotechnical Society of Ireland.