Galmoy Mine is an abandoned
zinc
Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...
and
lead
Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...
mine northwest of
Kilkenny,
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
. Located in the Rathdowney Trend, Galmoy was an underground mine that operated from 1997 to 2012, initially by Arcon International Resources, then by
Lundin Mining from 2005.
The Rathdowney Trend stretches , between the towns of
Abbeyleix
Abbeyleix (; ) is a town in County Laois, Ireland, located around south of the county town of Portlaoise.
Abbeyleix was formerly located on the N8, the main road from Dublin to Cork. At one point, up to 15,000 vehicles passed along the town' ...
and
Thurles
Thurles (; ''Durlas Éile'') is a town in County Tipperary, Ireland. It is located in the civil parish of the same name in the barony of Eliogarty and in the ecclesiastical parish of Thurles. The cathedral church of the Roman Catholic Arc ...
. The region is a broad plain drained by the Rossetown and Drish Rivers, tributaries of the
River Suir
The River Suir ( ; ga, an tSiúr or ''Abhainn na Siúire'' ) is a river in Ireland that flows into the Atlantic Ocean through Waterford after a distance of .
The catchment area of the Suir is 3,610 km2. , which flows into the sea at
Waterford
"Waterford remains the untaken city"
, mapsize = 220px
, pushpin_map = Ireland#Europe
, pushpin_map_caption = Location within Ireland##Location within Europe
, pushpin_relief = 1
, coordinates ...
. Exploration of the Rathdowney Trend during the late 1960s and early 1970s identified sporadic occurrences of lead and zinc, although the first significant mineralisation was not discovered until 1984.
Lisheen Mine
Lisheen Mine is a former lead-zinc-silver mine located between the villages of Moyne and Templetuohy in County Tipperary, Ireland. In the Rathdowney Trend, Lisheen was an underground mine where the Lisheen deposit lies at an average depth of 170 ...
is also in the Rathdowney Trend.
Galmoy was exclusively an underground operation. Initially the mine used
room and pillar methods exclusively, but subsequent modifications introduced both
benching
Birkat Hamazon ( he, בִּרְכַּת הַמָּזוׂן, The Blessing of the Food), known in English as the Grace After Meals ( yi, ; translit. ''bentschen'' or "to bless", Yinglish: Bentsching), is a set of Hebrew blessings that Jewish ...
and
drift and fill systems where conditions are appropriate, as a means of maximising ore recoveries. At the same time, the mining method was designed to ensure that no waste rock needed to be hauled to the surface.
Concentrates were transported by truck to
New Ross port,
County Wexford, about away, and loaded onto ships for transport to smelters, located mainly in Europe.
A miner was killed in an accident in 2007.
In 2008 workers at Galmoy Mines were told the mine was to close completely on a phased basis by July 2011, due to dwindling zinc resources at Galmoy and a drop in the price for metal worldwide. Production from the mine ceased in May 2009. Some ore remained unmined and plans were being formulated to recover of some or all of this ore. The mine finally closed in 2012.
Geology
The Galmoy ore bodies are
breccia
Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix.
The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of ...
-hosted, generally stratabound lenses of predominantly massive
sulphides
Sulfide (British English also sulphide) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to chemical compounds lar ...
consisting of
sphalerite,
argentiferous galena
Galena, also called lead glance, is the natural mineral form of lead(II) sulfide (PbS). It is the most important ore of lead and an important source of silver.
Galena is one of the most abundant and widely distributed sulfide minerals. It cry ...
and
pyrite
The mineral pyrite (), or iron pyrite, also known as fool's gold, is an iron sulfide with the chemical formula Fe S2 (iron (II) disulfide). Pyrite is the most abundant sulfide mineral.
Pyrite's metallic luster and pale brass-yellow hue giv ...
/
marcasite
The mineral marcasite, sometimes called “white iron pyrite”, is iron sulfide (FeS2) with orthorhombic crystal structure. It is physically and crystallographically distinct from pyrite, which is iron sulfide with cubic crystal structure. Both ...
in varying combinations. Hosted in
Lower Carboniferous
Lower may refer to:
*Lower (surname)
*Lower Township, New Jersey
*Lower Receiver (firearms)
*Lower Wick Gloucestershire, England
See also
*Nizhny
Nizhny (russian: Ни́жний; masculine), Nizhnyaya (; feminine), or Nizhneye (russian: Ни́ ...
rocks, they occur at the junction of an argillaceous
bioclastic
Bioclasts are skeletal fossil fragments of once living marine or land organisms that are found in sedimentary rocks laid down in a marine environment—especially limestone varieties around the globe. some of which take on distinct textures and col ...
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
beneath
dolomitised Waulsortian limestone.
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]
References
{{Reflist
See also
* Mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic ...
* Tara Mine
Tara Mines is a zinc and lead mine near Navan, County Meath, Ireland. Tara is an underground mine where the orebody lies between 50 and 900 metres below the surface in carbonate-hosted lead-zinc ore deposits.
The deposit was discovered in 1970 ...
* Lisheen Mine
Lisheen Mine is a former lead-zinc-silver mine located between the villages of Moyne and Templetuohy in County Tipperary, Ireland. In the Rathdowney Trend, Lisheen was an underground mine where the Lisheen deposit lies at an average depth of 170 ...
Zinc mines in the Republic of Ireland
Lead mines in the Republic of Ireland
Buildings and structures in County Tipperary
Underground mines in the Republic of Ireland