Ballingarry Coal Mines - Lickfinn

Lickfinn

In 1978, Kealy Mines commenced explorations in the area. The name derived from the surnames of its two principals, Patrick Keating, a civil engineer originally from Ballylooby in Tipperary and Gilbert Howley, a native of Co. Mayo. As a student, Keating had worked for O'Brien at the Gurteen pit before emigrating to work on the M1 motorway in England. He returned to Ireland in the early sixties and later became involved with Howley in the latter's civil engineering and excavation business. They reopened workings at Lickfinn, near the village of New Birmingham, which accessed the coal by Slope mining. Initially the mines employed 34 miners and the Electricity Supply Board expressed an interest in using Ballingarry coal for the generation of power and so reduce its dependence on imported oil. However, in preliminary testing at a power station designed to burn peat, the high temperatures produced by the anthracite caused its fire-grates to overheat. Coal dust was supplied to the Irish Sugar processing plant at Thurles and they became an important customer. Financing also proved a difficulty for Kealy Mines, and it was acquired by a Canadian consortium in 1982. Flair Resources Ltd., trading as Tipperary Anthracite was headed by John Young, a Tipperary emigrant to Canada. The new company expanded the workforce to 80 and transferred surface processing such as washing, screening and bagging to the old pithead at Gurteen. It also opened a second underground 'cutting' and investigated exploiting the more marginal No. 1 seam. An electrically powered coal-cutter was employed and investment allowed some further modernisation of plant. Extraction concentrated on the No. 2 seam, with its reserves estimated at that time to be 3 million tonnes. By 1985, Tipperary Anthracite was also in receivership. Financial irregularities regarding IDA grants were investigated by the Gardaí and highlighted on RTÉ current affairs programme 'Today Tonight'. In 1989, Emereld Resources was granted a licence to reopen the mines and for a while sporadic work continued at Lickfinn-Earl's Hill.