Abandoned, Derelict & Orphan Mines
Abandoned, derelict or orphan mines – one of the enduring images of mining in popular perception - commonly know as Abandoned Mines in North America, as Derelict Mines by some agencies in Australia and sometimes called Orphan Mines because there are no organizations clearly responsible for their rehabilitation or maintenance. Abandoned Mines are often perceived to have significant environmental impacts, particularly on water in streams and rivers, from water contaminated with acid and elevated metals flowing from eroding waste dumps and from underground workings. They often have hazardous underground openings, such as collapsing shafts, and accessible, but unstable and dangerous tunnels and open cuts. They also have heritage and historical value because of their age and the significance of their structures and the processes used. Perhaps the defining characteristic of these sites is the inability of agencies to cite or allocate clear ownership for the problems at the sites or for the site and the land itself. Often ownership of the site has inadvertently reverted to the owner of the surrounding land on which the abandoned mine lies. Some national, state and local government agencies have compiled inventories of the distribution of abandoned sites and of the environmental risks and liabilities associated with them. For example, the Canadian NOAMI project and the United States Geological Survey have undertaken major projects on abandoned mines. Many abandoned mine sites in the US fell under the auspices of the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfund for remediation of contaminated sites generally.
	Part of the derelict Conrad or Howell silver tin mine, near Inverell, NSW, Australia. This mine lies upstream of a major water storage, the Copeton Dam. Extensive water quality studies and rehabilitation work were undertaken at the site by the (then) NSW Department of Mineral Resources (Photo: G. McIlveen, CMLR).
	Look up Google™ definitions for: Abandoned, Derelict and Orphaned.
Part of the Captains Flat copper lead zinc mine (the northern pyrite dump), NSW, Australia, taken from the air before rehabilitation in 1976. Highly acid water can be seen ponding on the dump. The Molonglo River, which then flows through Canberra, the national capital, can be seen immediately to the left (Photo: G. McIlveen, CMLR).	The Northern Pyrite Dump during rehabilitation in 1976. The overall project cost the Commonwealth and NSW governments some AU$2.5 million at the time (Photo: G. McIlveen, CMLR).
Some well-known Abandoned Mine Sites
Find the following well–known (and not so well-known) abandoned, derelict or orphan mine sites in Australia using The Australian National Mines Atlas or Google Earth™.	Click on the Google Earth Placemark™ to fly to an abandoned mine. You can install Google Earth from here. Links will lead to Wikipedia entries.
Australia Queensland Horn Island gold mine Mt Morgan gold mine Agricola gold mine New South Wales Captains Flat copper lead zinc mine Conrad or Howell tin silver mine Ottery tin arsenic mine Yerranderie silver mine Woodsreef asbestos mine South Australia Burra copper mine Moonta copper mine Nairne pyrite mine Northern Territory Rum Jungle uranium mine Tasmania Savage River iron mine Mt Lyell copper gold mine, Queenstown King Island Scheelite (tungsten) mine	Abandoned mines elsewhere in the world Canada Britannia copper mine United States of America Berkeley Pit, Butte, Montana, copper mine Summitville gold mine Iron Mountain mine Great Britain Wheal Jane tin mine Rehabilitation at many sites today must make some difficult decisions in which environmental risks are matched against preservation of significant heritage values of old and sometimes unsafe mine structures, such as head frames and processing plants; indeed many old mines have become valuable tourist attractions once heritage conservation has been carried out, an example is Sovereign Hill in Victoria (Australia).
	More Google Earth Placemarks™ for active mines here.
Hebburn No 2 colliery, Cessnock, NSW, Australia, in the 1970s. The chitter or washery reject can be seen burning after igniting spontaneously (Photo: G. McIlveen, CMLR).	The Sunny Corner copper mine, near Bathurst, NSW, Australia, in the 1970s (Photo: G. McIlveen, CMLR).
Some useful links
Australia The rehabilitation of abandoned mining lands in Tasmania (Australia) News on abandoned mines from NSW (Australia) News release from NSW DPI on works at three sites in 2006 Managing Derelict Mines from NSW DPI (Australia) Mount Morgan mine rehabilitation In Western Australia, the Geological Survey of WA has compiled an inventory of abandoned mine sites (Ormsby, W.R., Howard, H.M. and Eaton, N.W., 2003. Inventory of abandoned mine sites: progress 1999 – 2002. Geological Survey of Western Australia, Record 2003/9). The Inventory is updated and released on DVD – the latest in February 2006 - and the work is summarized in: Strickland, C. and Ormsby, W., 2006. Field inventory of abandoned mine sites in Western Australia. Australian Centre for Geomechanics, May 2006 Newsletter, Perth (from which these notes are compiled). The references provide an inventory of abandoned mines in Western Australia. The project began in 1999 with the stated objectives of accurately locating and documenting abandoned mine sites, recording the factors relevant to public safety and environmental hazards that they pose, assessing their state of preservation and quantifying the “aggregate” risk at each site. The inventory is intended is to provide a basis for planning for rehabilitation at high risk sites. Mines were considered as abandoned if they were non-operational since 1990 – an interesting view of the meaning of abandoned mine. The MINEDEX database operated within the WA Department of Industry and Resources, and used as a basis for the Inventory, contains 11411 historic mine sites (defined as pre-1985). A database has been developed specifically for the project that holds, for example, photographic images of each site. North America The Superfund Redevelopment Program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency The National Orphaned/Abandoned Mines Initiative (NOAMI) in Canada The Abandoned Mine Lands Research with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management The U.S. Geological Survey Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative Europe Eden Project: A project to examine rehabilitation for closed mines (and derelict mines) in Europe particularly Land Restoration Trust: Rehabilitation of derelict collieries in Britain The European Mining Heritage Initiative (MINTOUR): A project starting up on rehabilitation for tourism of mine sites in Europe (.pdf)	More general sites that make reference to the issues of abandoned mines International Council on Mining and Metals NSW Department of Primary Industries - Departmental Environmental Management Policy Mining, Minerals and Sustainable Development The Minerals Mining and Sustainable Development project, undertaken as part of the mining industry’s Global Mining Initiative, provided some reference reporting on the issue of abandoned mines Corporate Environment Services An environmental Consultancy that produced Newsletters and fact sheets on Abandoned Mines Organizations with interests in general mine waste and waters U.S. Geological Survey Mine Waste Characterization Project approach to assemble, develop, and refine methods and tools for characterizing and screening weathered solid-mine wastes Rocky Mountain Regional Hazardous Substance Research Center has research and outreach components and the research goal is to develop new and to improve existing methods or technologies for remediation of mine waste sites Environmental Regulation of Mine Waters in the European Union (ERMITE), a three year research and development project which commenced in February 2001 and was successfully completed in January 2004. The goal was to provide integrated policy guidelines for developing European legislation and practice in relation to water management in the mining sector International Mine Water Association (IMWA) and the associated Mine Water Interdisciplinary Network of Europe (M-WINE) Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments (CL:AIRE), technologies for the remediation of contaminated land Acid Rock Drainage (ARD) There are many organizations working on the issue of Acid Rock Drainage (ARD), also known as Acid Mine Drainage (AMD), issues associated with closed mines and derelict mine sites. The US-based Acid Drainage Technology Initiative (ADTI) International Network for Acid Prevention (INAP), an industry-based grouping for ARD research and information Mine Environment Neutral Drainage (MEND).  For more MEND news, you can view the latest Mend Monitor newsletter at the Natural Resources Canada website. You can also contact MEND by e-mail Partnership for Acid Drainage Remediation in Europe (PADRE)
CMLR and CMLR staff have conducted research projects at many of these sites in Australia and CMLR can marshal resources to undertake comprehensive reviews, practical projects and research studies at abandoned mines anywhere in the world. This might include the preparing of national or regional inventories of derelict sites to better understand the scale of the issues and the actual and potential risks and impacts.