Geological Survey Ireland Minerals

by Eoin McGrath, Geological Survey Ireland

While the pandemic has made Geological Survey Ireland’s regular work patterns more challenging, the minerals programme has continued to move forward on key projects within the Survey. Current staff Tim Workman, Laura Smith, Des Johnston and Andrew Leslie have adapted to the changes enforced upon the programme and have been able to keep all projects moving onwards and upwards.

The programme’s core work of providing an archive and repository for mineral related data and samples was only slightly affected by Covid-19 and this aspect continues to expand. With the recent fit out of a regional core facility in Birr, Geological Survey Ireland has been able to accept core samples for archive from the Mace Head molybdenum project along with the ongoing acquisition of core from Ballinalack, Sligo, Twigspark and Kingscourt. The preservation of this material will provide an important resource for researchers and future exploration projects and it will be made available upon request. The core repository itself has also been a key component of the ongoing Blue Book project in conjunction with iCRAG, the first chapters of which are “in press” and awaiting a launch date. The launch of each chapter will also be accompanied by a workshop on each area when restrictions lift sufficiently. It is anticipated that the Blue Book project will provide the framework from where further key questions about Irish stratigraphy and mineralisation can be identified and answered over the next decades. It will provide the building blocks for our investigation of the subsurface natural resources, including raw materials, geothermal energy and groundwater, via mapping, drilling and geophysical investigation. The Blue Book will be a key product in ensuring Ireland’s position as a sustainable and secure source of the raw materials needed for the green transition. As we move towards that shift in energy production, Geological Survey Ireland will also be working in conjunction with the Geoscience Policy Division to identify the raw material requirements for Ireland’s climate action plan. This will allow us to forecast potential bottlenecks in the technologies required and to ensure that Ireland plays its part in the responsible sourcing of these materials on a European and global scale. In addition to the metal requirements for our Climate Action Plan, the secure supply of suitable aggregate and building materials for project 2040 will also be a key issue over the next decades. Geological Survey Ireland will be providing geological and technical expertise to the National Building Control Office (NBCO) in support of their market surveillance role within the quarrying and aggregates sector. The issue arising from pyrite and mica have highlighted the need for a better understanding of the geological sources of our building materials and this is an area that the minerals programme will be focusing on going forward. The project will include a redevelopment of the Survey’s Quarry Database along with a geological risk assessment methodology for identifying areas at a higher risk of deleterious materials. In addition to the Survey’s own work, a collaborative research call with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will provide much needed data and increase the present knowledge base in support of ensuring the supply of high quality materials. The work of the minerals programme over the past few years has gradually expanded as society begins to recognise the importance of raw materials for the green transition. Along with the specific projects mentioned above, we continue to work with international collaborators on minerals projects across the continent along with the Just Transition of the Irish Midlands, the monitoring and remediation of historic mine sites, dimension stone studies and numerous domestic and international research projects ranging from specific deposit scale mineral studies to large scale mineral prospectivity maps. The technical work done within the Survey will also feed into policy development and will inform how Ireland’s raw materials sector can respond to the coming challenges. ON a more immediate timescale, it is hoped that restrictions on face to face meetings will gradually lift and we look forward to meeting IMQS members in the field once more.