Went for a mooch up on Minera Mountain from New Brighton this morning. Haven't been up there for ages. Scanning the mining remains just off the road, I spotted something I'd never looked at before - it looked like a relatively new cap on a shaft. I stopped the car and sauntered over, the site is, I believe, Lower Park mine. The concrete cap has 4 vertical tubes cast in on the periphery and some u-bolts - obviously for some form of portable headgear and rope anchor points. What is interesting is that it has a steel hatch in the middle and written in the concrete is "Western Shaft 1996" The OS Ref is SJ251513 and if you zoom in on satellite view, the cap is quite clear.
So it looks like someone - UCET / Grosvenor CC / N Wales Mine Explorers have done this work and dropped into the shaft.
Anyone know who and what's left there?