'It is the people that makes Tara what it is. We have a great team of people all working hard to build a platform for the future'

Following a traumatic few years for Boliden Tara Mines, which saw the suspension of mining for a 15-month period, the future is looking bright for the 50-year-old Navan facility.

Licences are due to be renewed, exploration is continuing on the new Tara Deep orebody and with sustainability agreements in place with the workforce, they are building a solid platform for the future.

The government has indicated that the licences for their mining operations will be renewed until November 2045 - in the past renewals have only been for a 10 year period.

And it is a local woman, Michelle Bennett, who grew up in Bohermeen that is at the helm, having taken over the reins in April 2025, moving to the new role from her position as finance manager, where she gained valuable leadership, knowledge and experience within the mining industry.

"I grew up a couple of miles from here, my mother, Alicia was from Martry and my father, Sean is from Ardbraccan. I grew up playing a lot of sports and football around here. I played with St Cuthbert's in Bohermeen, then St Ultan's and also for the county, but I wasn't as good as the girls today! I thoroughly enjoyed it, made a lot of friends and my family is still very much embedded in the local community."

Michelle now lives with her husband and daughters in Randalstown. The girls, Mia and Madison, attend Oristown School and play football with Wolfe Tones club.

"Oristown is very much in the centre of where Tara operates, so I am very conscious of that community and the school and the great work they do there. My husband is not a Meath man and he said he married me so he could get to Croke Park more! He's from Carlow and unfortunately that hasn't happened with the men, but he has certainly been at the Meath ladies when they were playing in the All Ireland finals.

"I am very grateful in getting this opportunity with Tara Mines. I want to show a good example to my daughters. A female non-mining person running a mine hasn't been done before at Tara.

"Growing up and now living here, I have a real appreciation of the importance of Tara Mines to the local community and to the workforce and I have to say we have a wonderful workforce.

"It is not easy as we are in a way operating in the middle of a big town. It is unusual really for a mining operation to be so close to a town, so I'm very conscious of our social licence to operate in the area and how we engage and work closely and transparent with everyone around us," the Bohermeen native states.

"I am very privileged to hold this role. It is the people of Tara that makes Tara what it is. We have a great team of people here all working hard to build a platform for the future".

Michelle is a past pupil of St Michael's Loreto in Navan. She studied commerce in NUI Galway, majoring in accounting, later training as a chartered accountant with Deloitte.

She took time out and went to Australia, where she met her husband. They came home in 2007 and Michelle spent 11 years working for Eircom, in a number of different roles. In 2018, Michelle took time out to have her second daughter and then worked with a regulated financial services business, before an opportunity arose as head of finance at Tara Mines.

"Opportunities like that don't come all the time. I met my predecessor, Gunner Nystrom, discussed it, did some interviews and was offered the job. I had been the first ever female member of the management team at Tara Mines."

It was a roller coaster for her from the start, with the war in Ukraine breaking out a month after she started with the company, and just a year later the mine went into care and maintenance mode.

"The mines are very much exposed to geo-political factors across the world. Zinc prices are set by the London metal exchange, we sell everything in dollars, so the US dollar impacts our revenue.

"The war in Ukraine saw a significant increase in the price of energy. A culmination of factors led to the temporary suspension of mining here.

That was a significant learning curve. I'm glad to sit here today and have the operation re-opened, running and building a solid platform for the future."

While current rising prices due to the war in Iran is something they keeping our eye on, she says the mine is much better positioned now than they were in 2022.

"Back then we had a perfect storm, dropping zinc prices, high inflation and the energy crisis.

We are keeping a close eye on current prices, but we are better set up, organised and more resilient now to withstand some of these current shocks".

She recalls the care and maintenance period as a very difficult time for all their employees and the local community and their families.

"We were all very cognisant of that and worked very closely and very hard as a management team to put in place a plan to reopen Tara and once open to stay open.

"Our employees have done a fantastic job in taking on a new way of working, putting their shoulders to the wheel and driving Tara forward. We have made a huge amount of progress in the one and a half of years since we re-opened.

That is thanks to all our employees - every single person that comes in every day. I really have to recognise that and thank everybody for their efforts and the unions for the sustainability agreement we have in place. It allows us to become more resilient and agile as we are dealing with geo-political factors we cannot control."

She explains that in terms of energy, the plan is to build a solar park.

"We are hoping that this will be commissioned at the end of the year and that will supply 10 per cent of out energy costs directly to the site It will be good for costs, but also for our carbon footprint."

Meanwhile, a lot of time and energy is being spent on exploring Tara Deep, and while its commercial viability has yet to be proven, there are hopes that new orebody has the potential to extend the life of the mine for decades to come.

"If we look at this mine. It started in 1977 and 50 years later it is still here. Generally with mines when you get to mine them, you generally find more ore and Tara has been very successful in the past at extending the life of the mine."

Michelle believes having a constructive relationship with the trade unions is important.

"One of the philosophies of Boliden is to have strong engagement with everyone, especially our employees. "We have a fantastic workforce here and the relationship is good".

The tailings pond, where the waste product of the mining is stored has always been controversial with local residents.

"We have very constructive and transparent engagement with the local community. We meet with them on a quarterly basis and that is really important, because I live in that community. Sometimes I wear both hats.

"Boliden is a very responsible company and we comply with industry standards. We are heavily regulated and we take those responsibilities very seriously.

If Tara Deep were to come on stream, we will need a new tailings pond. We cannot run a mine without it. A lot of tailings are used to backfill the mine to minimise what goes out to the tailings facility.

"We think we have enough capacity for the current mine. If Tara Deep happens, we will need a new tailings pond, but it is too early to say whether that would be an extension to what's there or somewhere else."

She points out that there is a closure and remediation plan to deal with the tailings facility when the mine eventually closes. This is updated early every year, it is fully funded.

Diversity is very important to Boliden and Tara currently has a strong female team in lead roles and support functions.

"We are driving diversity very strongly at Boliden and Tara and we have a great team of people, both men and women and people from different backgrounds and different cultures.

We have more to do trying to attract more females into Tara. We have a lot of women in lead roles but we are aiming to get more females in to the front line operational roles."

Michelle believes the mine's involvement in the local community is very important.

"We are working with local communities and supporting amenities where needed.

We do a lot of sponsorship, we sponsored the park at Simonstown Gaels and the ladies football team there.

"We recently sponsored defibrillators for Dunderry and tablets and sensory gardens for some of the schools.

We also supported the Navan Shamrock Festival.

"We are very much embedded in local community and we very much appreciate the support of the community.

"We are a big employer both directly and indirectly and it is hugely important people feel we are giving back," she said.