Tara Mines an intrinsic part of Navan life for over four decades
Tara Mines is one of Navan's biggest employer with 650 directly employed and many other local companies and jobs dependent on the facility.
In 2017, the company celebrated the 40th anniversary of mining in Navan, but work to establish the mine goes back to 1970 when a shallow soil geochemical survey near Navan showed very high concentrations of both zinc and lead.
An extensive drilling program indicated an orebody of almost 70 million tonnes - Tara had discovered the biggest zinc/lead deposit in Europe.
Development of the orebody began in 1973 and production started in June 1977and for the past 40 years has been one of Navan’s biggest employers and County Meath’s biggest ratepayer. Tara is Europe's largest zinc mine and the fifth largest in the world. Since mining began in 1977, more than 85 million tonnes of ore have been extracted.
A Finnish Mining Company Outokumpo bought the mine from its original founders in 1986 and extended the operation by buying the adjacent Bula ore body in 2002 for €35million.
Two years later they sold the mine to the Swedish mining group, Boliden.
In 2017 Boliden announced a €44m investment in Tara Mines and stated successful exploration at the zinc mine had identified new mineral resources -Tara Deep and the same year, received planning permission to mine the closest section of the orebody to the surface. They also unveiled proposals to extend the tailings dam outside the town..
The new Tara Deep deposit resembles Tara’s main ore body, but has a more complicated structure and is at a greater depth of between 1,200 and 1,900 metres.
Boliden Tara Mines is continuing its search for further ore deposits and undertook a 3D seismic survey in Meath earlier this year.
The survey is primarily designed to locate additional resources with a view to extending the life of the mine at Navan.
The 3D Seismic Survey followed earlier surveys, the most recent being in 2015. The survey utilised truck-mounted Vibroseis units and was accompanied by crews placing small measuring devices in the ground.
The area being surveyed was centred on Dunderry and extended from Greetiagh to Robinstown and Balreask Old to Kilbride. The surveys aim as to produce information on the geology at depths of 1 to 2.5 kilometres with a view to extending the life of the mine.