DetectingWales.com

Courtesy of BBC Online

Wanted: Gold Mine Manager. It is not a vacancy you see very often in Wales. But the National Trust is looking for a suitably qualified individual to take over the running of Dolaucothi Gold Mines.

Gold has been mined from the hills in the Cothi Valley in rural Carmarthenshire since Roman times but it last functioned as a working mine in the 1930s.

By law the mine must have a manager but the challenge facing whoever is successful in securing the post is to conserve and oversee the site while further developing it as a tourist attraction.

Jacqui Kedward, the trust's property manager for Carmarthenshire, said: "It closed as a mine in 1938 when they took the decision that although there is still gold in the hills, the cost of getting it out was prohibitive.

 
The National Trust runs guided tours down the mines for tourists and school children "It's preserved by the National Trust because it's a site of archaeological importance - it's still got the pick marks the Romans left behind.

"Historically the manger would be someone who would have organised the shifts and the extraction of the gold."

Today the trust runs guided tours down the mines for tourists and school children, and they can take part in activities such as trying their hand at gold panning.

The previous manger is moving on after more than six years and Mrs Kedward said it was a unique job that did not come up very often.

"We want someone who has a great passion for working with the National Trust but also someone who can help develop it as a tourist attraction," she said.

"It's a fantastic tourism venue but a little bit of a hidden gem."

She said good organisational skills and a good knowledge of health and safety were vital.

"It's an outdoors job and not a desk or office job," added Mrs Kedward.

A job for DANCES WITH BADGERS he would be in his element lol

lol -- is this taff?   ;D ;D ;D

i have already aplied guys lol ;D