Note: It has been a long time since I did this job…61 years…so I hope those of
you who are professional geophysicists will forgive my memory and my ignorance.
EPISODE 62: BEGINNING THE JOB
As early 1500 Danish sailors noticed blue, green and pink stains on the cliffs along the south coast of Ireland. Samples from
the Knockmahon and Tankardstown mines show the bright green and blue oxidized minerals. The boom years for mining
were 1826 to 1877. Around 1840 these mines were of world wide significance. Since 1877 the area has been in decline…sadly so for
many local residents… fortunately Bunmahon and Knockmahon have
become a tourist attraction recently now renamed the Copper Coast. If you want a project see if you can find holes in the cliffs
through which two young men could crawl and thereby enter the century old Knockmahon mine.
alan skeoch
June 2020
Tuesday June 14, 1960
I spent a terrible night. My whole body twitched…nerves. Got up and wrote a
letter to Marjorie. I think the 13 days spent in Dublin waiting to get going on rhe
job was the reason for the twitching. In the morning all was fine. My room
in Mrs.Kennedy’s house is quite large…big enough for three religious Ikons which
did not help me sleep. Above my bed there is large picture of Jesus with his
chest opened to his heart. The picture must be comforting to some people
but I found it made me uncomfortable. Imagine yourself lying in bed and looking
upward.
The meals prepared and served by the Kennedy
family are very good. Mrs. Kennedy runs the show with grace
and a bit aloof. She also turned out to be the moral conscience of
Bunmahon and she was not afraid to say so. I think she is also nervous.
Mr. Kennedya does
not talk much. He spends his time farming while Mrs. Kennedy
operates the only store in the village selling essentials from clothing
to non perishable canned goods and hardware. The store is dark
on the inside. Not much business because most villagers seem to
be unemployed. Both their children are charming. Especially Gerald
who suffers from Downs Syndrome which makes him very interested
in our project. There is a fifth member of the household who is exclusively
Gerlad’s caregiver and partner…their black Labrador dog.
A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST: KNOCKMAHON MINE CIRCA 1900 (speculating the mine could be reopened)
Knockmahon Mine Test: This photograph was taken around 1900. Imagine you
were down in the mine 30 years earlier, around 1970.
1) What is the difference between the men in white coats and the other men?
Why would those four men wear white jackets?
2) No one seems happy but which group is distinctly unhappy?
3) Why are they carrying candles that are lit?
4) Can you find the basic mining tools?
5) What is the purpose of that metal reinforced bucket?
6) Where in the mine would you guess they are standing? Stope, Passageway,
Shaft?
7) What do the high rubber boots worn by the white coated men tell you about
conditions underground…and perhaps how deep in the mine the men are standing?
8) What footwear are the others wearing? Does this say anything?
9) Notice the ladder. How many ladders would be needed to get here at
the 100 foot level of the Knockmahon mine? Miners descended in the dark.
10) What does the rope indicate about the Knockmahon Mine?
11) How did miners find their way from place to place in the mine when there
was no light other than candles (for oxygen test) and Kerosene lanterns (which
were dangerous).
12) No mine carts visible. Odd?
13) Who would take this kind of work?
14) Feeling the way up, down and through a pitch black
mine is dangerous. Also it could be fatal if a ladder rung
broke. (which happened) Who looked after injured miners?
15) Did children work deep in the Knockmahon mine. Take a guess.
16) What work could women and girls do in the Knockmahon
mine operation. Take a guess.
17) Why were many of these men originally from Cornwall?
Hint: What was special about the geology of Cornwall. Search
and find out.
One Fact:
Did you know that the miners had to bid for their jobs? i.e. If a miner wanted
access to high grade ore, he had to bid for the location. How did this system
of bidding function?
Ladders were left in position when the mine was abandoned in 1877.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/Main_Street_Bunmahon_-_geograph.org.uk_-_708592.jpg/500px-Main_Street_Bunmahon_-_geograph.org.uk_-_708592.jpg 2x” data-file-width=”640″ data-file-height=”480″ style=”border: 0px; vertical-align: middle;” class=””>“Alan, what can you tell me about Bunmanon?”
“Well, the village is at the mouth of the Mahon River…’ Bun Mahon’…located on the
western edge of Waterford County, Southern Ireland. Overlooks the sea.”
“Peculiar rock formations were noticed by Danish sailors long long ago. Greens, blues, pinks…strange
colours caused by oxidation of metal ores, principally copper. Some lead. Some cobalt…perhaps some silver.”
“Tunnelling began from the cliff face… tunnels called adits are still there but hard to find.”
“Not much left of the old town. But once in the 1850’s and 1660’s there were 2,000 people live here.”
“Hardly 100 in 1960.”
“What happened?”
“The Knockmanon mine thrived for a few decades then the seams of copper ore just
petered out. And most of the miners boarded immigrant ships for jobs as miners
in the United States.”
“Bunmahon is almost a ghost town.”
“Not quite. Kirwin’s pub is thriving and will do even better now that you are here, Alan.”
“Strange thing about Bunmanon is the strong presence of a Temperance Movement…the old
Temperane Hall is now the roman Catholic Church.”
“But there were once 21 pubs.”
“There would have been a lot more if the Temperance people had not been present.”
“Why are we here in 1960?”
“World is worried about copper reserves because of Idi Amin in Africa. So Dennison Mines
thinks maybe a good supply of copper ore was missed by 19th century mining methods.”
“A lot of people are counting on us….dream of reopening the mine.”
“Massive unemployment in Ireland.”
“Wages of those working is as low as one pound a day…about $2.50 Canadian.”
“Maybe we can help for a couple of months.:
“And if we are successful Bunmahon may come alive again.”
“What are the chances?”
“Mining is a crap shoot…win some, lose many.”
THE CANADIAN TEAM: STAM, HOGAN AND SKEOCH
Dr. John Stam, John Hogan and I had our first glimpse of the old Knockmahon mine,
The ruins are impressive … not far from a hundred to two hundred foot cliff face that goes down
to the sea. Stark. Beautiful. Intimidating. Mysterious. All those and more
John Stam took over as leader of the project. He has a phD in geophysics…knows
how the earth works…the magnetic
field that is an envelope around our world. It shields us from solar radiation
Without that shield life could not exist. At Least life as we know it. The magnetic field is
not uniform. There are blips where minerals are concentrated. These minerals
…copper in particular…elevate our lives. Electricity…power to elevate us lowly
humans from a brutal dog eat dog existence to a life where books, romance, food,
music…the finer things in life are taken for granted. Dr. Stam will spend his life in search
of copper.
What creates this magnetic field? The molten core of the earth is a dynamo.
John Hogan is a geologist employed by Denison Mines to sleuth out those pockets
of minerals concentrated here and there in the earths crust. Hogan deals
in minerals he can touch. Mmierals he can crack with a hammer. In truth, John Hogan
does not have that specific job here in Bunmahon. He really is sent to
oversee what we are doing. He is a watchman. I was instructed to pretend I was
a permanent employee who had worked for the company for years. Part of that
was true. But I was really just a summertime person. Best to just button my lif.
John Hogan is A nice guy. Both Johns, Stam and Hogan,
spend a lot of their time in the big drawing room we have rented. They will take the numbers
from my field book and plot them on graph paper looking for anomalies. Looking for
evidence that there is something unusual beneath our feet.
My job is important. I am not just a ‘hewer of wood and hauler of water’. At least I like
to think that is the case. Professionals in the mining business might differ. My job is to
use sophisticated geophysical instrument called the Ronka and the Turam that pump
electricity into the ground via a
mile long grounded cable… an artificial electrical field … a loop cmpleted via the rock. Electricity forced
into the overburden and rock beneath my feet. An anomaly is a blip. ff the background
readings are 20 let’s say…just an imaginary number. And all around the readings on my
console are 20 then nothing is found. If however the console readings suddenly jump to 30 or
40 or 50 over a particular location then we have an anomaly. We have something odd…maybe
we have a pocket of chalcopyrite. Maybe we have a mine. Maybe we have nothing which
is true most of the time Geophysical prospectors are dreamers as much as gold banners
were in the Yukon. Must ask Dr. Paterson how many mines he has found.
But the area east of Bunmahon has already been a mine in the 18th and 19th centuries. Miners from
Cornwall lived here.. .They blasted and dug their way down into the bowels of the earth extricating
lumps of copper ore. They blasted there way under the sea for hundreds of feet.
When the ocean leaked into the depths of the mine, pumps were kept going to
keep the stopes open. Once down deep they hammered chunks of ore free from the rock
and had these chunks hauled up to the light of day where they were processed into copper
post, pans, wire…mostly wire. Copper wire carries that mystery of mysteries called electricity.
If the Knockmahon mine was mined out then why are we here. we are here in hope that the
Knockmahon mine overlooked seams of chalcopyrite. Nineteenth century mining was less
sophistcated. We could do better. Arrogance.
Bunmahon was once a boom town with 21 pubs and a population of hundreds, perhaps thousands.
All dependent upon the riches processed from seams of copper. In 1960 only two pubs survived
Kriwin’s was the Catholic pub and across the road was the much smaller Anglican pub. It surprised
me to discover that drinking beer and sipping whisky was considered a religious addiction.
The social life in Kirwin’s was focused on a dart board. But most patrons came to drink
beer…pints of Guinness principally. Our social life initially centred around games
of pinochle played in our suite of rooms. Hogan and Stam seemed content
playing cards. I went along with them for a while but soon found that isolating
ourselves from the community was rather stand offish.
A man approached us first evening. “would there be any work I can do for you fellows?”
And so began our hiring program. Eventually we hired most of the villagers and many living
in cottages on nearly forgotten gravel trails where once there were streets in better times.
Wednesday June 15, 1960
“Rose early for a fine Irish breakfast. The Kennedy house is cold. Unpacked the
Ronka instrument and test operated it along the roadway. The machine did not
work! What was I to do? Had that sinking feeling. We have flown thousands of
miles…sent crates equipment…made promises…and then find the machine
does not work. My fault? So I Spent afternoon checking connections and found break in
a cable connector. Fixed it. Amazed at myself. Went to lumberyard and ordered
1,000 stakes for linocutting crew. Stake every 50 feet for readings. We planned
a grid for Turam readings once equipment arrives. Meanwhile we will use the
Ronka. Ocean waves are huge today. Mrs Kennedy laid out a grand supper for us.
Played pinochle all evening with Stam and Hogan.”
Thursday June 16, 1960
“Heavy fog this morning…damn cold without proper clothing. Poppies grow wild
everywhere. John Hogan and John Stam wanted to go to some kind of special
Catholic Mass today but the car would not start. I took the Ronka and worked
the whole day doing 62stations, 3 lines, dual frequency. Surprised by the
number of old mine shafts here and there across the fields. Dangerous…open.
One big shaft is being used as a garbage dump recently filled with huge pile of
glass milk bottles. Strange they were not saved…risky to rescue any. Lots
of donkeys and horses…thatched grooves. Bunmahon has two couches one
of which is closed and cemented up. Protestant. For some strange reason
Mrs. Kennedy told me about a local author (female) who wrote ‘dirty’ books
about Ireland but the books are banned in Ireland. The Priest says ‘burn
them!” But she never said the book title. People approach us everywhere
for jobs. I saw a badger today. The brier patches are nasty…thorny…pierce
flesh. After plotting results we played pinochle all evening. Seems we could
be doing something more interesting.”
Friday June 17, 1960
“Oh what a beautiful morning…Oh, what a beautiful day! Well, things did not
quite work out that way. T he morning, yes…beautiful. The afternoon…not so great.
While busy staking the intervals I fell headlong into a six foot deep briar (gorse)
patch filled gully. Ripped skin on arms and tore my pants. Lay there for
15 minutes swearing…every word I knew and then some. Face down surrounded
by thorns making each move torture. Survived. A learning situation. Managed
to get 2,400 feet of survey data from the Ronka. Later I phoned Timlin in Dublin.
The Turam crates have arrived but is currently getting customs clearance. Who
knows how long that will take. Got letters from home but none from Marjorie.
Drove to lumberyard at Kill to order long pickets…short ones no use. Then drove
on to Waterford to make insurance was in place. Bought socks at 50 cents a pair.
Then dropped in to Doolan’s Bar. Doolan himself was there. Doolan’s was
100 years old…current Doolan must be son. Noted many beggars on the streets
of Waterford. Drove back to Bunmahon to meet the local police officer just to
let him know what we would be doing. Herds of cattle on the road…sheep as
well…then donkeys and wagons. Made it back to Kennedy’s in time for supper
and pinochle. We are being approached by men needing work constantly.”
END PART TWO: BUNMAHON JOB IN IRELAND