Abandoned mines must be reclaimed to protect water, wildlife and the public from acid mine drainage.
The Bureau of Land Management keeps an inventory of abandoned mine sites for reclamation purposes, to protect water from unencumbered acid mine drainage, and to protect wildlife and the public. An abandoned mine is defined as a site where there is no identifiable owner or operators for the facilities, or the facilities have reverted back to federal ownership. All abandoned mines listed by the BLM are on federal or possibly state-owned lands. There are a few databases to search in order to find abandoned gold mines in Washington.
Instructions
1. Search the bureau's abandoned mine site inventory on public lands, available at each district office. As of 2010, the inventory shows there are 76 abandoned mines in Washington; 40 of these have not been evaluated for reclamation activities, which means the bureau has detailed information on 36 abandoned mines, such as ore grade and production time periods.
2. Review all the open file reports and information circulars produced by the Washington Division of Geology and Earth Resources. The division has detailed site characterization reports on certain inactive and abandoned mine lands--specifically, mines that have more than 2,000 feet of underground development and once produced more than 10,000 tons of minerals. Review the summary section of each report to determine if gold ore was produced, and if the mine has been abandoned or is just inactive.
3. Gold mines may have been abandoned when prices were low, making the ore unprofitable to mine.
Search the bureau's Land and Resource Mineral System, specifically, the un-patented mining claims database. The database include surface mineral maps for Washington as well as a listing of un-patented mining claims by location and claimant name. Some of these claims may have expired so while these site are not considered abandoned, gold ores deposits may be located there, however at the time of location, the ore was not considered marketable nor viable to produce and so remained un-patented.
4. Search the United States Geologic Survey Mining Claim Density Database for Washington State. The database contains general location information for each claim within the Public Land Survey System; the type of claim (lode, placer, mill site, tunnel site) and indicates whether the claim is open, held or closed.
5. Cross-reference all information with the records office of the county where abandoned sites are believed to exist. If mining claims had been patented in the past, the title to the land associated with the claim would have passed from the government to the claimant and subsequently recorded by the county official. The last step will help locate mines that are not currently inventoried as abandoned, but claimants may have died or operators are no longer in business, leaving the mine site unencumbered.
Tags: abandoned mine, abandoned mines, mining claims, abandoned gold, acid mine, acid mine drainage, been abandoned
