Hi all , was just looking for a rigging guide or any info on Aberllyn zinc mine near llanrwst , I have seen a video of a group abseiling in via a tree into a large sloping shaft with a few re,belays going down to a shortish drop into the mine , however I can't seem to find anything about the route ?¿ Any info greatly appreciated , cheers

Aberllyn has been a sensitive / no go area for a number of years. The Forestry commission have forbidden all access.

I am not certain of the current situation.
Probably best not to mention trips on a public forum.:)

Furthermore there is a caravan park below Aberllyn which gets it's water from the mine(!). Exploring the mine stirs up the silt which knackers the filters apparently. So if ones turns up with a view to exploring, you are likely to get accosted.

Parc is nearby, and impressive. It has an access arrangement:
http://rakelane.anduin.org.uk/cal/index.html 
Please abide by their terms of access. Making a success of this arrangement opens the possibility of more sites being managed in this way.......

Chris.

I believe the landowner gets a bit cross when the water turns orange, yes... 😮

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Cave Access Limited had a chat to the landowner regarding official access, but we decided against trying to add it to the Gwydyr Mine list because of liability issues.

The landowner has historical rights to abstract water from the lowest level (level 6) and the water feeds the caravan site near the road and the farm and holiday cottages towards the estuary. He has filters on the supply, presumably to take out the zinc and other matter. If people enter or exit on level 6 (or stir up sediment in level 5) then ochre gets into his supply and knackers the filters at £200 each.

Because of this CAL could not afford to take the risk, since we have zero funds - being essentially non-profit and could have been taken to court to recover costs of new filters. We wouldn't be able to control where explorers went and while the majority would abide by the rules there are always idiots who know better!

It is possible to get in at the top behind the cottage and it's a short abseil pitch. It's also easy to enter or exit from the level 3 portal. Heading down to level 4 is fine. But dropping down to level 5 AND going into the aqueous bit is a no-no as is heading down to level 6.

Any current access is not covered by the CAL agreement and so it is criminal trespass being on NRW (ex Forestry Commission) land.

CAL will not condone access, but we know it has happened in the past and will almost certainly happen in the future. The level 3 adit allows you to get to all the areas of interest without SRT or the risk of causing pollution. ::)

As Chris mentions, Parc mine is a good explore and if you register with CAL then you have legal access.

http://www.caveaccess.co.uk 

Dave

Hi Dave, if you're on UKCaving, the same question could do with that response posting there, just to maintain awareness.
Cheers.

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Yes, just seen that thread will post there as well

Cheers,
Dave

Why someone would choose to abstract polluted water from a metal mine is beyond me. Think there are quite a few examples though - World's End, trial near Pantywrach etc. Do they not have access to mains water?

Robin

I believe water is extracted from a number of adits on the site... euch!

I wouldn't be happy to find out my water was coming from an old mine, filtered or not! I guess what people don't know doesn't hurt em! Not sure why water can't be extracted from the plentiful streams and for surely a fraction of the cost of having to filter mine water... but hey its not my place to judge, I like to imagine its all above board and tested fairly regularly.

Maybe there is something addictive to aberllyn water! :lol:

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Not sure why water can't be extracted from the plentiful streams and for surely a fraction of the cost of having to filter mine water...

Surface stream water is notoriously prone to all sorts of 'nasties'.

Fair enough! I guess all the things mine explorers excrete is probably better :lol:

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If surface nasties are biological they can be zapped. Not so sure about metallic ions. I don't think straightforward filtering would work, and you'd need some sort of Gubbins to capture the positive ions. A bit like deflocculation in reverse maybe?

Also, that water must be pretty acidic. Not sure I'd clean my teeth with it.

As the water is a multi user supply I would suspect it must be treated to some set standard?
Perhaps even subjected to local authority testing.

When we had our own boreholes at work a fellow used to come and test it once or twice a year, I guess perhaps because we were a workplace of 1000+ people. I suppose a caravan site may come under similar rules.

There are several sites up and down the country that draw from mines. As you might expect, they are subject to strict monitoring.
For instance, the Derbyshire village of Youlgreave draws water from Mawstone Mine to supplement the original spring water source that can no longer keep pace with automatic washing machines and indoor toilets.

Back in the day at Crofty, we tested the water from a flooded part of Dolcoath. Turned out the water quality was much better than a certain French bottled water! Read into that what you will.

Standard small scale private water supply filtering is usually done with particle filters to rid sediments and UV to zap any biologicals, de-ionisers can be incorporated in cases of perceived risk, although it is more common at point of use. Chlorination is sometimes advised.
Testing is carried out annually by the local authority, but I suspect this could be done more frequently depending on volume of usage.

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