More than £200 million in wages, goods and services will be paid into the north Tipperary economy over the next 14 years as the Lisheen zinc mine, near Thurles, gears up for full production.
The mine was officially opened this week and blessed by the Catholic Archbishop of Cashel, Dr Dermot Clifford, and the Rev Thomas Sherlock of the Church of Ireland. It will employ 300 people by the year's end, 80 per cent of whom are expected to be recruited locally.
Images of grimy troglodytes with pickaxes and shovels are defunct. Mr Steve Ridge, originally from Dublin but now living in Thurles, has worked in mines throughout Africa. He says that everything is mechanised now, except for the laying of the charges for blasting. Even that will be done by machine later in the year.
Local employment is centred on machine-operators, and people used to farm machines can be retrained to drive dump trucks.
Situated about 10 miles north-east of Thurles, near the village of Moyne, Lisheen might once have been considered a remote location, but not by experienced miners. During construction some workers commuted from Dublin.
"Most mines in the world are in the back end of nowhere. You consider northern Canada, the outback of Australia, the middle of Africa. For people with families working in this industry, it is a prime location," says Mr Conor Spollen, a process engineer, who works in the computer-based monitoring and control centre. He commutes daily from Kilkenny, a 45-minute drive.
Mr Ridge says that, as with most mines, there is a multicultural workforce and a good mix of newcomers and of people with up to 30 years' experience.
Lisheen, discovered 10 years ago, is the largest such find in Europe since 1985. Mr David Hough, the managing director of Ivernia, the Limerick exploration company, was a member of the team on the boggy terrain of Moyne on his birthday in April 1990, when the zinc sample which first hinted at the riches beneath the soil was discovered.
They were down to the equivalent of a gold prospector's last few cents, having spent £2,480,000 of a £2.5 million fund, when a test sample revealed a 17 per cent presence of zinc through a 14-metre section of rock.
Ten years later, after spending £180 million in a joint venture with Anglo-American to build the mine, he was sitting in a marquee with guests who included the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith.
"This is the culmination of it. I thought at the time, if only it was big as Galmoy we would be well ahead. Now we have a deposit that is the fifth-biggest in the world," he says.
During its 14-year lifespan, it will produce about five million tonnes of zinc and lead concentrate for export, amounting to an annual £105 million. The workers will have more than a passing interest in the world price of zinc, the mine's principal product.
World zinc output is expected to grow by 7.3 per cent this year to 8.44 million tonnes, and consumption will rise by 3.3 per cent to 8.6 million tonnes.
The mine gives the lie to the old geography lessons many people remember, and referred to this week by the chairman of Ivernia, Mr Clayton Love, that there was nothing underneath Irish soil but water.
Senator Des Hanafin said he remembered the geography which wrote off the presence of mineral wealth. The mine's hidden benefit was the alternative career opportunities it provided. "It gives confidence to people to try new things."
Mr Michael Lowry TD said lessons had been learnt by the operators from the mistakes made by other mining concerns in the region. "They gave a commitment to openness and transparency, and meaningful dialogue," he said.
After the official opening on Thursday, an open day was held for local people.
Ivernia and Anglo-American had a difficult task in overcoming the negative perceptions of mining following the contamination caused by a tailings pond, a dump for mining waste.
A report on proposed remedial action will be produced shortly by an inter-agency group, including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Government Departments and the Mid-Western Health Board.
The tailings pond has been strictly monitored by the EPA and is designed ultimately to be reintegrated into the landscape as a raised bog.