Irish mining historian Des Cowman passed away on December 20. Des was a high school history teacher in Tramore who took a great interest in local history especially the copper mining that took place in Bunmahon on the Waterford coast in the 19th century. He wrote numerous books and articles and was a key operative…

There was a very nice presentation by Hans Muessig to the Mining History Association on the Comstock in November that is now available on YouTube. It has the rather long title of ‘Re-examining the legacy of the Comstock: Miners, Mills, Saloons and Assessments’. Hans did quite a bit of basic research on the social fabric…

One of the joys of chasing down the history of Irish miners is you always know there are some you overlooked and it is wonderful to find some more. Such is the case with John J Ross and his son Will in the Wisconsin village of Linden. Linden is about 6 miles NW of Mineral…

The Irish Times had a brief article last week about the closure (and recent reopening) of the Bolinden owned Tara Mines lead zinc mine in County Meath. Apparently monies to the tune of 3.8Million Euro were provided to Bolinden by the Irish Government during the shutdown as part of a general EU sponsored support for…

CRH stock has been doing well since it changed its primary listing to the NYSE earlier thsi year and currently trades at a 19.3 price to earnings ratio. They just announced that CEO Albert Manifold is stepping down at the end of the year and he will be replaced by another financial man, CFO Jim…

Oral historian Jane Bardall gave a wonderful talk titled ‘Stories of Miners in Mogollan, NM’ in the September Mining History Association monthly nuggets presentation. Mogollon is in the southwest of the state near the Arizona border and had mining for silver and gold from the late 1870s through WWII. Jane covered the mining in the…