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Who answers which question
The first call about a hole, a shaft or a crack is never to anyone in this directory. It goes to the state abandoned mine land program, which our if the ground moves guide lists for every state with its telephone number, and the mine map comes from the state office our how to get the mine map guide names.
The 65 bodies below are the ones that research, regulate, teach and archive the subject: the federal programs that fund reclamation and keep the national files, the university departments and state surveys housed at universities, and the public bodies abroad that have run national mine record systems for longer than any American state. Each row names what the body does in its own words, where it works, and the person its own page names in charge, where it names one. A body is listed only after its page was opened from this server or confirmed in the search index on October 29, 2026.
A person is named only where the body's own page names them in that role, and that page is linked. Five of the 65 do.
United States
Federal agencies and national bodies
| Body | What it does | Where | Named on its page |
|---|---|---|---|
| NIOSH Mining Program National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC | The federal mine safety research program, with its Office of Mine Safety and Health Research and the Pittsburgh and Spokane research divisions, that studies ground falls, pillar collapse and roof support and publishes its findings and tools free of charge. | United States | Not named on the page |
| NIOSH Pittsburgh Mining Research Division (PMRD) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC | Runs the Mine Roof Simulator for full size roof supports and the Safety Research and Experimental Coal Mines near Pittsburgh, and does field research on ground control at mines across the country. | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, serving the whole country | Director, Pittsburgh Mining Research Division: Stephen G. Sawyer, Jr., PhD |
| NIOSH Spokane Mining Research Division (SMRD) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC | Tests rock, cemented backfill, shotcrete and ground support in its support and rock properties laboratory and does field research at mines, with a western and hard rock focus. | Spokane, Washington, serving the western states | Director, Spokane Mining Research Division: Doug Johns, PhD |
| NIOSH Mining and Ground Falls topic page National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, CDC | Plain language summary of the ground fall and ground control research, roof and rib falls, pillar collapse and slope failure, with the numbers and links to the research behind them. | United States | Not named on the page |
| USGS Mineral Resources Program U.S. Geological Survey | The USGS program that funds and publishes the national mineral deposit and mine feature data, including the USMIN and MRDS files behind the address search on our hub. | United States | Not named on the page |
| USGS topoView, historical topographic maps U.S. Geological Survey, National Geologic Map Database | Free viewer and download of the historical USGS topographic map collection, where the old shaft, adit and mine dump symbols for a place can be seen and compared across map editions. | United States | Not named on the page |
| OSMRE Reclaiming Abandoned Mine Lands Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Department of the Interior | The Title IV program under SMCRA that funds state and tribal reclamation of hazards left by coal mines abandoned before 1977, with the AML awards, AMLER and e-AMLIS pages hanging off it. | United States | Not named on the page |
| OSMRE Technical Innovation and Professional Services (TIPS) Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Department of the Interior | Supplies and trains the state, tribal and federal mining offices in the scientific, geospatial and engineering software used to review mine permits and reclamation, which is where the technical staff behind a state mine map office learn their tools. | United States | Not named on the page |
| OSMRE National Technical Training Program (NTTP) Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Department of the Interior | Since 1985 the training program in geology, engineering, hydrology and blasting for federal, state and tribal mining personnel, with its courses and the Career Series Guide listed. | United States | Not named on the page |
| MSHA Mine Data Retrieval System Mine Safety and Health Administration, Department of Labor | Federal record of every mine with a mine ID, operator, status, inspections and accidents, which gives the operator and dates for a mine that was still working after 1970. | United States | Not named on the page |
| BLM Abandoned Mine Lands program Bureau of Land Management, Department of the Interior | The program for physical safety and environmental hazards at abandoned hard rock mines on BLM public land in the western states, the office to reach when an old working sits on federal land. | Western United States | Not named on the page |
| US Forest Service Abandoned Mine Lands USDA Forest Service, Minerals and Geology Management | Minerals and Geology Management restores land disturbed by historic mining on the national forests, 188 million acres mostly in the West, and is the office for a hazardous opening on forest land. | United States, national forests | Not named on the page |
| EPA Abandoned Mine Lands U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Superfund | Where the contamination side of an old mine is handled: Superfund investigation and cleanup at abandoned mine sites, with the policy, guidance and technical resources EPA uses. | United States | Not named on the page |
| National Park Service Abandoned Mineral Lands National Park Service, Department of the Interior | The park service inventory of about 38,000 abandoned mineral land features inside the national parks and the program that closes or reclaims them. | United States, national parks | Not named on the page |
| Committee on Earth Resources National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Board on Earth Sciences and Resources | Standing committee since 1991 on energy and mineral resources, the health and safety of the mining workforce and the stewardship of mined land, the body behind National Academies reports on these subjects. | United States | Not named on the page |
| OneMine digital library Society for Mining, Metallurgy and Exploration (SME) | The mining professional society's digital library of more than 147,000 technical papers and books from 15 societies, where published subsidence and ground control research can be found and cited. | United States and international | Not named on the page |
| Geo-Institute publications Geo-Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers | The geotechnical institute of ASCE, whose Geotechnical Special Publications carry the peer reviewed guidelines and technical reports of its committees. | United States | Not named on the page |
| Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC) Interstate Mining Compact Commission | The compact of state mining regulators, with its member states, publications including the IMCC and NAAMLP hardrock report, and the officers who speak for the state programs. | United States, member states | Not named on the page |
| National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs (NAAMLP) National Association of Abandoned Mine Land Programs | The association of the state and tribal abandoned mine land programs, with its newsletter, awards and meetings, where the people who run reclamation in every coal state are listed. | United States, member states and tribes | Not named on the page |
| State Geological Surveys directory Association of American State Geologists (AASG) | Address, phone and email of every state geological survey, the office that holds the geology and often the mine records of a state. | United States, all states and Puerto Rico | Not named on the page |
Teaching and surveys
Mining schools and the state surveys housed with them
Several state geological surveys are university units or sit on a campus, and the survey holds the mine records: Kentucky, Nevada, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico and Colorado among them.
| Body | What it does | Where | Named on its page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering Penn State University | The John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, home of the Penn State mining engineering program, at the university that hosts the Pennsylvania Mine Map Atlas at minemaps.psu.edu. | Pennsylvania | Not named on the page |
| Mining Engineering at West Virginia University West Virginia University, Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources | The mining engineering department, over 150 years old, teaching and researching the science, safety and technology of mineral extraction and processing. | West Virginia | Not named on the page |
| National Mine Land Reclamation Center West Virginia University, West Virginia Water Research Institute | Authorized by Congress in 1988 to work on acid mine drainage, prime farmland restoration, subsidence control and groundwater degradation at active and abandoned coal mines. | West Virginia and the Appalachian coalfields | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering Virginia Tech | Department with more than 130 years of mining engineering teaching and research, including its center for autonomous mining and a part in a $73 million Department of Energy mine of the future initiative. | Virginia | Not named on the page |
| Virginia Center for Coal and Energy Research (VCCER) Virginia Tech | Interdisciplinary center created by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1977 for coal and energy research, environmental concerns and policy advice to the state. | Virginia | Not named on the page |
| School of Minerals and Subsurface Energy Colorado School of Mines | The school that now holds the Mines mining engineering program, working across mining, petroleum, geoscience and subsurface engineering on the full life cycle of a mineral resource; the Colorado Geological Survey is a state agency housed at the same school. | Colorado | Not named on the page |
| Mining and Explosives Engineering Missouri University of Science and Technology | Department teaching mining and explosives engineering for every kind of mine, from aggregates and industrial minerals to metals, lithium and rare earths. | Missouri | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mining Engineering University of Kentucky | Department funded by the Department of Energy, the Alpha Foundation and NIOSH for research on rare earth recovery, autonomous underground mining systems and protection against coal mine explosions. | Kentucky | Not named on the page |
| Kentucky Geological Survey University of Kentucky | The state survey, part of the University of Kentucky since 1948, with staff in landslide monitoring, hydrogeology, mineral resources and environmental geology, labs and real time hazard monitoring. | Kentucky | State Geologist and KGS Director: Mike McGlue |
| KGS GeoPortal, Known Coal Mined Out Areas layer Kentucky Geological Survey, University of Kentucky | The survey's map gateway with the Known Coal Mined Out Areas and historical mines layer from the state mine mapping system over topographic and aerial base maps. | Kentucky | Not named on the page |
| Illinois State Geological Survey, coal geology University of Illinois, Prairie Research Institute | The survey's coal geology work: about 201,000 acres of residential and built up land in Illinois lie close to roughly 5,500 underground coal mines, and the survey runs the ILMINES viewer so an owner can check the distance to one. | Illinois | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mining Engineering University of Utah | The mining engineering department at the University of Utah, with undergraduate and graduate programs and a FAQ on what mining engineers do. | Utah | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mining Engineering Montana Tech | Department in Butte with the nation's only on campus underground mine, training specialists in mine design, blasting, rock mechanics and ventilation; the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, the state survey, is on the same campus. | Montana | Not named on the page |
| School of Mining Engineering and Mineral Resources University of Arizona | School with the San Xavier student mine, in the state that produces the most copper; the Arizona Geological Survey, which holds the state mining data, is part of the same university. | Arizona | Not named on the page |
| Mining Engineering, College of Engineering and Mines University of Alaska Fairbanks | The northernmost accredited mining engineering program, hard rock focused, with expertise in Arctic conditions and placer mining and a student chapter of SME. | Alaska | Not named on the page |
| Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Michigan Technological University | Department working from field to lab on natural resource management, disaster mitigation and infrastructure design, in the old copper and iron country of the Upper Peninsula. | Michigan | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mining and Metallurgical Engineering University of Nevada, Reno | The state's mining engineering department; the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, with the state's mining records, is at the same university. | Nevada | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mining Engineering and Management South Dakota Mines | Department in Rapid City with a Mining Safety and Health Training program alongside its degrees, in the Black Hills mining district. | South Dakota | Not named on the page |
| Department of Mineral Engineering New Mexico Tech | One of the oldest departments at New Mexico Tech, teaching mineral engineering; the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, the state survey with the mines database, is on the same campus. | New Mexico | Not named on the page |
Other countries
Mine record bodies in other countries
Britain has run an address level coal mining report for decades, New South Wales declares mine subsidence districts, and Ontario and Nova Scotia publish their abandoned opening inventories as open data. They show what a national mine record system looks like.
| Body | What it does | Where | Named on its page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Remediation Authority UK Government (formerly the Coal Authority) | The public body that holds the coal mining records of Britain, answers mining reports on a property, repairs subsidence damage and takes hazard reports around the clock. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Find out if a property is affected by coal mining Mining Remediation Authority, GOV.UK | The address level check and the mining report order, which lists mine entries within 20 meters of a property boundary, gas emissions and other recorded coal mining hazards. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Report a coal mine hazard Mining Remediation Authority, GOV.UK | The 24 hour line, 0800 288 4242, for a collapsed mine or entrance, gas or water from an abandoned mine, an unsealed entrance or a hole in the ground. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Claim for subsidence damage caused by coal mining Mining Remediation Authority, GOV.UK | How a householder claims for structural damage from coal mining subsidence with a damage notice form sent to the Authority, with a surveyor's cost recoverable when the claim succeeds. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Access coal mining information and data Mining Remediation Authority, GOV.UK | Guide to the Authority's records: more than 120,000 coal abandonment plans, some from the 17th century, 47,000 British Coal photographs, the coal holdings register and the license register. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Planning applications and Coal Mining Risk Assessments Mining Remediation Authority, GOV.UK | The rule that development in the Development High Risk Area needs a Coal Mining Risk Assessment, with the planning advice service enquiry form. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Mining Remediation Authority Map Viewer Mining Remediation Authority | The Authority's public map of its planning, coal mining, mine water heat and metal mine data in the browser. | England, Scotland and Wales | Not named on the page |
| Mining hazard (not including coal) British Geological Survey | Research and dataset on underground workings for more than 60 commodities other than coal, from tin and lead to building stone, the gap the coal records do not cover. | Great Britain | Not named on the page |
| BGS GeoIndex (onshore) British Geological Survey | The free map index of BGS datasets, boreholes, geology and hazard layers, for anyone who wants the ground record under a place in Great Britain. | Great Britain | Not named on the page |
| Australian Mines Atlas Geoscience Australia | The national map of operating mines, mineral deposits and resource data kept by Geoscience Australia, listed among its online tools. | Australia | Not named on the page |
| Subsidence Advisory NSW New South Wales Government | The state agency for owners in areas where underground coal mining subsidence may occur, with a 24 hour emergency line, 1800 248 083, for holes and damage, and an online portal for claims and approvals. | New South Wales, Australia | Not named on the page |
| Mine Subsidence Districts Subsidence Advisory NSW | What a declared district is, how to check a property against it, and the rule that any damaged home in NSW is eligible for compensation when its approvals were in order. | New South Wales, Australia | Not named on the page |
| Check if a property is in a Mine Subsidence District Service NSW | The address check for a Mine Subsidence District under the Coal Mine Subsidence Compensation Act 2017 and the approval needed before building or subdividing inside one. | New South Wales, Australia | Not named on the page |
| Abandoned Mine Lands Program Queensland Government | Queensland's program for assessing and remediating abandoned mines, with the online form, email and phone for reporting an abandoned mine site. | Queensland, Australia | Not named on the page |
| Abandoned Mines Program Western Australian Department of Mines, Petroleum and Exploration | The program that rehabilitates abandoned mine features, tens of thousands across the state since the 1800s, paid for from the Mining Rehabilitation Fund. | Western Australia | Not named on the page |
| Former Mines Program South Australian Department for Energy and Mining | The program set up to document and risk rank former mines in South Australia, with pages on the Radium Hill and Brukunga sites. | South Australia | Not named on the page |
| Rehabilitation Trust Fund Mineral Resources Tasmania | The Tasmanian fund for rehabilitating abandoned mining land and land affected by former exploration, administered by the state's mineral resources office. | Tasmania, Australia | Not named on the page |
| Geological Survey of Canada Natural Resources Canada | Canada's national organization for geoscientific information and research, whose minerals and hazards work supports the mining sector and land use decisions, with divisions for Atlantic, Calgary, Central, Northern and Pacific Canada. | Canada | Director General, Geological Survey of Canada: Sonia Talwar |
| Abandoned Mines Information System (AMIS) Government of Ontario, Ministry of Mines | Ontario's database of known abandoned mine sites and mine hazard features on Crown and private land, published as open data with a ministry contact. | Ontario, Canada | Not named on the page |
| OGSEarth Ontario Geological Survey | The Ontario Geological Survey's downloadable map layers, with Abandoned Mines first in the provincial list. | Ontario, Canada | Not named on the page |
| Abandoned Mine Openings (AMO) Database Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources, Geoscience and Mines Branch | An inventory of the surface expressions of abandoned underground workings in Nova Scotia, with the warning that undocumented openings exist and a note of how new ones are added. | Nova Scotia, Canada | Not named on the page |
| Reclamation of an abandoned mine site Gouvernement du Quebec | How the Quebec government takes over and reclaims abandoned mine sites under its responsibility, with the work plan, the money invested and examples of restored sites. | Quebec, Canada | Not named on the page |
| MINFILE Mineral Inventory British Columbia Geological Survey | The provincial inventory of 16,261 mineral occurrences, searchable by name, map sheet and status including past producer, which is the British Columbia record of old mines. | British Columbia, Canada | Not named on the page |
| Research Center of Post-Mining (Forschungszentrum Nachbergbau) Technische Hochschule Georg Agricola, Bochum | The research center on what happens after mining stops, from the closure of a mine to the later use of the land, publishing in English from the Ruhr coalfield. | Germany | Not named on the page |
| Department of Geology and Geophysics and Surface Protection Central Mining Institute, National Research Institute (GIG-PIB), Katowice | The institute's department with laboratories for mining geophysics, geodesy and geomatics, and the protection of structures in mining areas, with each laboratory head, email and phone listed. | Poland, Upper Silesia | Head of Department: Adam Lurka |
| DIAMO, state enterprise Czech Republic, state enterprise at Straz pod Ralskem | The state enterprise that mitigates the consequences of uranium, ore and part of the coal mining in the Czech Republic on behalf of the state. | Czech Republic | Not named on the page |
The first call
The state offices are on the state pages
Every state page in the list below carries that state's own mine map office, abandoned mine land program and geological survey, each opened from this server, with the counties and towns of the state ranked by what the old records hold inside them.
Your own state
Abandoned mine maps, state by state
Each page names that state's own offices, its own counties and its own numbers.
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Please read
Disclaimer
The mine information here is for general information only. Old mine records can be incomplete, outdated or wrong, and finding nothing here does not mean there is nothing there. Check with the mine map office named here before you rely on it, and have a qualified engineer look at any ground you are worried about. PublicRecordCenter.com assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors, omissions, or consequences arising from the use of this information.