Could someone point me towards something that would simply explain, I am a mechanical engineer after all, what some of these wonderfully sounding words mean before I go off and give them some spurious and possibly amusing (after a few pints) meaning?
Such as:
epigenetic
sensu stricto
conodont
coeval

reminds me of the requirements for a geologist quoted by a well known geologist in Cornwall:
someone capable of turning a simple geological concept into terms only another geologist can understand.

Drilling to start again this week...one hole every ten days
should be possible? 😉

drilling to start again monday 24 june.

The question is where?

The most recent rns said they were drilling three holes at a total of 750m, in the cumbria county, and they would drill more after the results of the three holes. The rns does not specify were in Cumbria the holes are to be drilled.

The most recent rns said they were drilling three holes at a total of 750m, in the cumbria county, and they would drill more after the results of the three holes. The rns does not specify were in Cumbria the holes are to be drilled.

Thanks guys, there are lots of us wandering around the Nenthead, weardale watershed so let us see if we can spot where they are.
After all you cannot hide the rig!

Cumbria County Council Planning Department have told me that the drilling is being carried out under "Permitted Development", which means the boreholes do not require separate planning applications and hence there are no location maps. However, they say it does not affect any public footpaths in the area, and is not on the open moorland so that might be a clue for hill walkers. It seems Eden District Council are also involved but I can't find anything on their website that locates the borehole sites.

Dave Greenwood

So anyway - does anyone reckon this company could be a good bet for buying shares? I've heard the price of zinc is likely to rocket by 2014! ;D

Try:

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShareChat.asp?ShareTicker=MIO&share=minco 

There are a whole load of guys on there who talk of nothing else.

Dave Greenwood

If you haven’t seen them before, there are two excellent BGS reports on the 1/10,000 maps that cover Nenthead-Alston area. They are:

CLARKE, S.M. 2007. The Geology of NY74SE, Nenthead, Cumbria. BGS Open Report, OR/07/033.

and

CLARKE, S. M. 2008. Geology of NY74NE, NW and NY75NE, SW and SE, Alston, Cumbria. BGS Open Report, OR/07/032.

both available (free) at:

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/7887/1/OR07033.pdf 

and

http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/7886/1/OR07032.pdf 

Although strictly speaking the first report only applies to the 25 km2 covered by sheet, NY74SE much of the detail is applicable to adjacent areas and there is a rather nice map (Fig 5 p 52) that shows the fluorite/ baryte zone boundaries, the zinc zone and the major veins in the area extending from NY 690 505 in the NW to NY 826 410 in the SE ie over most of the ground that MINCO is likely to drill. There is also a cross section (Fig 4 p 51) that must run very close to the site of CA-001.

The second report is very similar but does include additional points such as references to the Whin Sill.

I've never met Nora Nerc but she sounds a canny lass!

Dave Greenwood

Although, not directly related to the main thread, our local authority recently allowed planning consent for drilling to take place in former school premises to look for the extension of the Cannobie/ West Cumberland high grade coal field, as mentioned, from the other side of the Solway on a previous
posting. Having agreed the rent of £10.000 per annum it was announced on Friday that the authority had suspended its consent due to a legall challenge being taken up to the high court.
Obviously not everyone is in favour of drilling, perhaps Minco are lucky!

Todays rumours courtesy of Mincoleaks: awaiting for permission to start next hole - expected in next few days, likely to be Haggs Bank area. Best of first holes was in Roughside area. Tynebottom Limestone might be best horizon.

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just drove past the rig today, not more than a few hundred yards from the first hole, about 20 yards from the welcome to northumberland sign as you head over to coalcleugh, so boundary gate neck of the woods?

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MINCO PR Department have been in overdrive. See BBC Look North:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-23716625 

Tyne Tees Television:

http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/story/2013-08-16/mining-could-return-to-the-north-penines/ 

Northern Echo:

http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/business/news/10617743.Zinc_mine_could_create_500_North_East_jobs/ 

Last MINCO presentation:

http://www.proactiveinvestors.co.uk/genera/files/companies/4._minco.pdf 

The mention of Allenheads in the Tyne-Tees report is interesting. Could MINCO be planning to use the old BSC incline as an initial entrance (even though it points the wrong way) and then perhaps set off with a dib to the west from an underground location (say in the Great Limestone) thereby keeping the surface workings to a minimum as per the plans by Sirius Minerals for their Potash mine in the North York Moors National Park? I wonder how the inhabitants of Allenheads will react to 1 Mtpa of crude ore (say 25,000 lorry loads) trundling past their doors even if it does create 500 jobs?

Dave Greenwood.

A slight diversion from the topic in hand, but going on from the mention of 500 being created.

In a new set-up like this in an area where mining has largely lapsed for an extended period would many of the jobs actually go to locals or would they largely be using contractors who would be sending the lion's share of their earnings out of the area?

I've locked the other thread of the same subject title and content, just to prevent any confusion :thumbup:

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I would imagine that locals would be recruited for the majority of the vacancies. A lot of the jobs would involve driving machinery etc and there would be plenty of time to train staff up before the mine opens. I would imagine most of the training would revolve around health and safety issues.

In tara mines in Navan, the mine would be the largest employer in the area and the majority of the staff would be local.

I would assume that all this P.R. activity by Minco is to try and stop any hassle from protestors as as been highlighted by myself on the Cannobie coalfield exploration, and more dramatically regarding the 'possible ' fracking at the Sussex site.
As I have previously stated all the mining companies are looking to limit their expenditure on new exploration, the development that Minco envisage is expenditure on a grand scale.
RTZ have halted their Mongolian mine development simply because their partners, the Mongolian government are bulking at the monies they are having to find, and this is probably on the best Copper/Gold mine developments in the world.

Maybe a bit old news but the results to date are not really very exciting and certainly nothing minable has been intersected yet. So even discussion about potential mines and jobs is very very premature.

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Dublin, 24 May 2013 - Minco Plc (AIM - “MIO”) (the “Company”) is very pleased to report that the first phase of exploration drilling at its Northern Pennines zinc-lead project in northern England has encountered elevated zinc-lead values over broad intervals in all four (4) drill holes completed in the programme to date.

In the third hole of the programme (“CA-003”) Minco intersected disseminated mineralization at a depth of 430 metres grading 4.32% zinc (“Zn”) and 13.43 grams per tonne silver (“gpt Ag”) over 2.35 metres, which includes an interval grading 12.2% Zn and 34gpt Ag over 0.3 metres, and another interval grading 11.3% Zn and 45 gpt Ag over 0.34 metres.

A second intersection, higher up in the same hole (CA-003) at a depth of 144 metres, encountered disseminated mineralization grading 2.93% Zn, 0.59% lead (“Pb”) and 5.37 gpt Ag over 5.75 metres.

The broadest zone of disseminated low grade mineralization was encountered in the fourth hole of the programme (“CA-004”), which has not been assayed.


+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

As a matter of interest and for comparison the "discovery" holes at Navan (in Ireland) cut 37.0m @ 13.8% Zn+Pb (Hole 3) and 32.0m @ 30.1% Zn+Pb (Hole 4) - to be followed by much better and longer intersepts for an initial resource of 69.9Mt @ 10.1% Zn, 2.6% Pb. (The overall resource and mined tonnage now well exceeds 100Mt).

For general information re Minco drilling:

The average rate for diamond core drilling is 60-80 m per 12 hour shift. Each hole should take 2-3 days. RC drilling is faster but gives only cuttings

After site clean-up there is only an approx. 3 inch hole in the ground with possibly a short casing pipe sticking up. Environmental scar almost nil and will disappear within a few years, depending on reseeding.

Drilling and blasting for roads:

Environmental scar almost permanent and affects all users of the road and other public, for better or worse.

Permitting required: automatic as a government project. Almost no accountability for long lasting effect.

Question, which should be more regulated?

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