Lisheen Mine

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.

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 was 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 was removed by large Load Haul Dump (LHD) machines and loaded into trucks which transported the ore to the crusher. The ore was 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 were transported daily via a conveyor system from the mine to surface where it was stored in a covered stockpile of approximately 12,000 tonnes live capacity prior to processing in the Concentrator plant. Following various process the concentrate was then trucked south to Cork for onward shipment to various customers.

Until its closure, the mine was owned and operated by Vedanta Resources Zinc International, being acquired from Anglo American in 2011. [3]

• Infomine.com profile of the site

• Judkin-Fitzgerald Baronets, of Lisheen (1801)
• Sedimentary exhalative deposits
• Ore genesis
• Mining
• Tara Mine
• Galmoy Mine