St Barbara is considered the patron saint of miners and there is usually a little shrine to her at the entrance to underground mines in many (Catholic) parts of Europe. But the connection between St Barbara and mining is very tenuous and she is also the patron saint of artillerymen, naval gunners and explosive engineers!…

Unfortunately there has been a problem with book availability in Ireland. Because of ‘Brexit’, Amazon.co.uk will not ship the book to Ireland. It is available on amazon.de, but the shipping cost is higher. There are now copies available in some county libraries, Hanna’s Bookstore in Dublin and the Allihies and Copper Coast Museums.

Saw lots of great papers in the last few days that I would like to explore in more detail. For me the best was Brian Buck of the Friends of Ski Mountain Mining History on ‘Raising the Daly-West Headframe’. The best link would be on their webpage parkcityhistory.org/mining/daly-west-headframe/. But their were many others. Brian Leech’s…

The Mining History Association conference visited a number of old area mine sites today. The Spiro tunnel is right near old downtown and was originally associated with the Silver King mine, much higher up on the landscape. It is now being refurbished as a drainage and water supply system for Park City the ski areas…

The 2024 Mining History Association annual conference opened in Park City tonight with a reception at the old Miners Hospital. While the building dats to 1904, it was not originally in this site being moved here by the local history and preservation group to save it from demolition. A miners hospital in early years but…

Swedish owner Bolinden had put the Tara underground zinc/lead mine in Ireland on care and maintenance in July 2023 due to low nickel prices and high local costs. On May 3, they announced that they had reached agreement with power suppliers and the unionized workforce for a new working arrangement which will reduce costs by…