8th September - Mining of limestone in Spain.
Following the summer break, a very well attended meeting held at Frome Rugby Club heard Julian Cleeton, one of the Committee members, give a fascinating account of the development of an underground limestone mine in Northern Spain.
He began by recounting how he came across the project almost by accident when he was doing some blasting trials at the quarry. He then gave an outline of the Basque region where the mine is located. He described some of the events that take place such as bulls that are trained to compete against each other, pulling heavy stones along a prepared course. In order to do this they fit them with shoes just like horses.
He explained the long tradition of mining in this area. Then by means of slides and computer generated graphics Julian gave a detailed account of the plans to extract some 9 million tonnes of limestone using vertical crater retreat mining techniques. In addition he showed how they intend to extract some 30 million tonnes by means of a glory hole.
The project is still in its early stages but a considerable amount of work has already been carried out. The audience were clearly impressed by the scale and scope of it and a lively question and answer session followed. Everyone is now asking when a site visit can be organised!
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