IF ALL goes according to plan the first lead and zinc ore will be coming out of the ground at Lisheen, co Tipperary by mid 1998. In order to get to that stage Minorco Lisheen will first have to successfully negotiate the planning process, satisfy the Environmental Protection Agency and overcome inevitable local objections to its mine.
The man responsible for achieving all this is Dr Graham Rees. The 53 year old Welsh born engineer is managing director of Minorco Lisheen, a joint venture between South African owned mining giant Minorco and the small quoted, Irish exploration company Ivernia. He has spent the past 12 months carefully preparing for this week when the company lodged its planning application with Tipperary County Council.
Minorco and Ivernia keenly observed the trials and tribulations of fellow mining company Arcon, which took over five years to obtain planning permission for a similar but smaller mine at Galmoy in nearby co Kilkenny. Arcon met with serious opposition from local interests concerned about the impact of the mine on the water table.
Dr Rees is optimistic that Minorco Lisheen will not have the same problems. The main reason for his optimism is the "homework" that the company has put into the project. Minorco Lisheen has conducted what it believes to be an exhaustive consultation process with local interest groups. However, the North Tipperary branch of An Taisce claims that it was not been approached. The omission of An Taisce from the process was an oversight according to Dr Rees who lists about 20 groups which have been consulted.
"I think the community feel that the mine will be of major benefit," says Dr Rees.
In financial terms it will be one of the biggest investments ever in North Tipperary. Minorco Lisheen will spend £120 million developing the mine which will employ up to 350 people over its 13.5 year life span. An additional 400 jobs will be created during the construction phase and around £35 million a year will be injected into the local and national economy each year.
In addition to the local people the company has also worked on winning over the County Council and the Environmental Protection Agency, which must licence the mine.
"We have worked very hard with the regulators to find out what they required and to show them that we will do it." As with the Galmoy mine, water was one of the major issues.
"We have worked hard to resolve that," explains Dr Rees. The company will spend "many millions" to ensure that the local water supply will not be affected. The company plans to site the mine's tailings pond in a local bog, but according to Dr Rees it has gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure that there will be no contamination of the local water supply.
Dr Rees homework appears to have paid off. The farmers, at least, are offering their support. "There seems to be a good relationship. There is no opposition like there was in Galmoy," explains Mr Michael Everard, local secretary of the Irish Farmers Association.
If any part of the proposed development is likely to become controversial it will be the tailings pond, believes Mr Everard. However, at present the farming community is happy to leave it up to the County Council and the EPA to assess the risk of the local water table being contaminated with mine waste.
The publicity associated with Arcon's difficulties and eventual success has worked to Minorco Lisheen's advantage believes Dr Rees. "Arcon has enabled people to see that a high quality mine can blend in with the local community," he said.
Winning the hearts and minds of the locals has not been cheap. Under the terms of the application Minorco Lisheen will pay for the connection of the plant to the electricity grid and also spend up to £6 million upgrading the local roads. At present the company plans to transport the processed ore by road but is looking at the feasibility of rail transport.
The company will endeavour, where possible, to purchase its requirements locally, says Dr Rees. "If we were not entirely committed we could not get the local people on board. We want them to get excited about the project".
Unlike Arcon, which had to hire a project management company, Minorco Lisheen has in house experience to manage the mine construction project, according to Dr Rees. This fact is hardly surprising as Minorco is part of a conglomerate comprising Anglo American Corporation and De Beers, two companies which dominate the South African mining industry. Dr Rees has recently completed a trawl of Minorco and Anglo Amercian employees with Irish connections in order to form his team.
The most likely organisational structure will be an "owners team" of about 40 people who will manage the three major aspects of the project, the construction of the mine, the building of the processing plant and the upgrading of the local infrastructure.
Irish construction companies will be well placed to bid for the infrastructural work but have limited experience on which to pitch for the other business. However interested local companies are expected to combine with international firms which have the necessary experience in mine construction, according to Dr Rees.
Minorco Lisheen's approach is paying dividends. The farming community is, so far, taking a positive view and although it has not been consulted, An Taisce is not opposed in principle. However it is early days, the various interested parties will have the chance to examine the plan in detail now that it has been lodged with the County Council. An Taisce will probably commission an independent assessment of the plan according to Mr Patrick Mackie the local An Taisce branch secretary. At present the most likely source of objections are from land owners on the periphery of the proposed site. Minorco Lisheen has acquired all the necessary land for the mine including any adjoining residential property. The amounts paid were "very generous" according to Dr Rees. However, the company is still in negotiations with some individuals whose land they would like to buy.
Dr Rees' present home in the Dublin suburb of Shankill may be only a short distance across the Irish Sea from his birthplace, Colwyn Bay in Wales, but his journey between the two has been a convoluted one.
He graduated with a first class honours degree in electrical engineering from Manchester University in 1965 and went onto Cambridge where he obtained a PhD in control engineering.
His first job was as an electrical engineer on a mine in the Zambian Copper belt in 1968. He then spent many years working in African mining and also worked in Abu Dhabi. He joined Anglo American in 1975, moving into project management and was responsible for developing the Jwanreng diamond mine in Botswana, now one of the world richest diamond mines. In 1984 he moved to De Beers Marine to work on an offshore diamond dredging project in Namibia. The challenges of this job involved leading the development of technology to dredge diamonds from the sea bed. More difficult still was convincing the board of De Beers to invest in the project at a time of deep recession in the South African economy and difficulties in the diamond market. It required the "profound expression of reasoned argument and justification to the board by Graham," according to a profile of Dr Rees supplied by De Beers Marine.
More of the same will no doubt be needed before the people of North Tipperary are convinced that a 17.7 million tonne lead and zinc mine on their doorstep is a good thing.
