Quarry & Mining Equipment Ltd (QME) celebrated 30 years in Business at a Dinner for over 210 guests on Friday 17th November at the Ballymascanlon Hotel near Dundalk.
QME’s founding director Peter McParland started working on machinery in his uncle’s quarrying business, Rooney & McParland, near Newry in 1979. He became familiar with large mining equipment during the 1980’s at the Tynagh and Gortdrum mines, as he was responsible for the sale of mining and milling equipment from those mines.
In the mid 1980’s, Ireland’s largest zinc-lead mine, Tara, was taken over by Finland’s Outokumpu group, which commenced a programme of replacing existing mining equipment. In 1987, Peter formed QME, focussing on refurbishing and selling off the redundant mining fleet from Tara. In the 1990’s the company expanded rapidly in providing and repairing mining equipment for Tara and for the new Irish zinc mines at Galmoy and Lisheen and also provided equipment for mines in Canada and the US for many mining companies.
In 2009, QME commenced contract mining for Tara in developing its recently discovered SWEX ore zones and has since undertaken mine and quarry development in Northern Ireland and Scotland. QME is currently supporting the development of the “Tara Deep” ore zones and other main development work at Tara. QME has over 200 items of equipment and employs over 140 personnel. It has developed innovative products such as a shotcrete sprayer in collaboration with Normet.
Speaking at the Dinner, John Kearney of Buchans Mining noted that the McParland’s family long standing links to the industry in Ireland and Canada and of Peter’s skill and dedication in building QME into the success it enjoys today.
Tara was taken over by Boliden of Sweden in 2004. On 20thNovember 2017, QME was awarded a Safety Award by Boliden in Stockholm in recognition of its outstanding accomplishments in developing and maintaining the highest standards of safety performance at the Tara mine.
Commenting on QME’s success, Keon Verbruggen, Director of Geological Survey Ireland, said;
“QME is a wonderful example of the direct and indirect economic impact on a regional economy of the mining sector. QME developed a range of services, initially for the Tara mine near Navan for equipment refurbishment and repair, and later for underground contract mining, in so doing, QME now employs over 140 skilled craftsmen and mining personnel. It has extended its reach to the UK and in the future, further afield.
It is gratifying to see QME’s commitment to the highest safety standards recognised by Boliden this week in Stockholm on this historic anniversary.”