Work is starting at Boliden’s Tara mine in Ireland after efforts to stop the increased water inflow were successful. Pumping and mapping of any damage as a result of the water inflow has begun at the large underground zinc mine.
Production stopped for safety reasons in November and efforts were redirected to stop the water inflow and to protect production-critical equipment.
“We have the water inflow under control,” said Klas Nilsson, director group communications for Boliden. “Several efforts are now being initiated to restore the mine to normal production. When this can happen is still uncertain as water accumulations need to be removed, and a survey of damages to the mine infrastructure must be carried out.”
Boliden also confirmed that no one was injured in the incident and there was no impact to the surrounding environment.Tara employs 580 miners and the current working depth is 3,000 meters. Last year, they produced 2.3 million metric tons of zinc-rich ore with lead and silver byproducts.
