Tara Mines pumps £20 million a year in wages alone into the local economy of Co Meath. And for every one of the 600 people working there, an estimated three more are employed in ancillary operations.
It kept the area relatively prosperous during the lean 1980s and Navan is now cursed with gridlock and labour shortages like anywhere else. Local publican Mr Paddy Fitzsimons has many Tara Mines workers among his clientele and has just completed a major extension to his bar. Like many people in Navan, he refuses to contemplate the demise of the plant.
"I haven't seen a strike that wasn't settled and, if it comes to strike action again I would hope that it will be settled."
However, Mr Fitzsimons, who is also chairman of the Urban District Council, does not see any immediate solutions.
Although he is in Fianna Fail he has no hesitation in paying tribute to the deal brokered by the independent Labour chairman of the county council, Mr Brian Fitzgerald, to save the mine last July.
Mr Leo Mulligan, who owns the Navan Photo Centre, says that his business will be hurt if Tara Mines closes. Not only will consumer demand fall but so will orders from companies who supply goods to the mine. "The only thing that might save Navan is the fact that it's expanding with the overflow from Dublin."
One of those suppliers is Mr Ray McNeice of Cotter Marketing. "I'm going to have to work a lot harder to offset the loss of sales in Tara if it closes", he says.
At the mine many of the workers were more optimistic. They feel that in the current jobs market they will find alternatives. Few of them were paying much attention to the line of Canadian miners arriving for the evening shift.
One of the latter, Mr Dough Keogh, says that his great-grandfather emigrated to Newfoundland to look for work. With Canadian mines facing layoffs, he was happy to come to Navan.