Stage mine, Knockmahon, Bonmahon (Bunmahon), Co. Waterford, Ireland

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Chalcopyrite/quartz veins, extensively mined from adits in the sea cliff, and from inland shafts.

The mine is said to have been at work during the reign of Elizabeth 1st (1558-1603), and it was also raising ores at other periods during the following century. In 1730, a Mr. Hume profitably worked the Stage Lode for some time and in 1796, Colonel Hall and Mr. Galway spent a large sum on the property without much success. The mine subsequently passed into the hands of the Hibernian Mining Company and was acquired in 1824 by the Mining Company of Ireland who continued working it with varying success during the following decades.

Stage lode was worked beneath the sea and at a depth of 106 fms, the level extends 150 fms from the foot of the cliff. At times, however, the shallower works were conducted incautiously and the crust of vein stone left standing was so thin that the sea found its way into the mine and only with great difficulty and at a great expense it was successfully dammed out.

"In April 1840, the imprudent removal of a prop caused many thousand tons of rubbish to fall on Michael Walsh of Bonmahon, one of several miners engaged at the sixty-six fathom level, beneath the sea. Although little or no hope of his safety remained, a strong party was instantly employed, as well to extricate the body that it might be decently buried, as to re-open the drift and repair the damage. After the men had worked some twenty-four hours, however, they were astonished to hear the voice of their lost comrade, who was shut in by masses of the fallen rocks. He told them that his knees almost touched his chin, that salt-water had risen nearly to his mouth, and that he had eaten his last candle." (Henwood, 1871)

Irish grid ref. X 444 986.
ITM 644363 598691

Mineral List

Atacamite Botallackite Calcite Chalcocite

Chalcopyrite 'Chlorite Group' Clinoatacamite Copper

Cuprite Limonite Malachite Pyrite

Quartz Tenorite

14 entries listed. 12 valid minerals.

References