Comments on: Tara Mine II

By: That was the year that was – 2009 Part Two « Hypo-theses

That was the year that was – 2009 Part Two « Hypo-theses — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:06:34 +0000

[...] I also visited Ireland for the EAGE Near Surface Geophysics conference and had a visit to the Tara zinc and lead mine. [...]

By: Silver Fox

Silver Fox — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 23:42:04 +0000

Nice set of posts on the Tara Mine – and nice photos, including the ones underground, which can be hard to get.

By: industrialheritageireland.info » Blog Archive » Tara Mines

industrialheritageireland.info » Blog Archive » Tara Mines — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:37:29 +0000

[...] Post 1 Post 2 [...]

By: hypocentre

hypocentre — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:32:34 +0000

Yes, they do re-use the water. They do have issues with water underground after having hit a zone with a high flow. They are not allowed to pump it into the local river despite it being more pure than the local town’s drinking water supply. (The local river is a salmon river and has special legislation).

By: Lockwood

Lockwood — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 00:29:46 +0000

That looks quite similar to the processes used at the Inco plant at Sudbury. I’ve toured their surface operations a couple of times. I don’t remember how they separate the Ni and Cu though; I don’t recall that the different sulfides are separated during floculation, but I’m not sure how they could do it during smelting. The smelting is done on site, though, not at a different place. I got to watch a nickle pour once, and the copper goes through the final purification in an -enormous- set of electrolysis vats.

Cool stuff!

By: Maria

Maria — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:14:42 +0000

Do they re-use the water from the settling tanks? Seems like a big disposal problem otherwise.