Out here in Utah, USA, the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program of the State Division of Oil Gas and Mining is fond to cite the false figure that over 17,000 mines in Utah have been identified and that 100% of them are extreme public safety hazards and in need of closure. Unlike other States, Utah's AMRP believes that rather than fencing or gates, backfilling is the best reclamation plan. No other State claims that ALL of their mines are hazards. Most claim only a certain small percentage are truly hazards in need of mitigation. Why does Utah exaggerate their statistics to the point of ridiculousness? There almost seems to be a conspiracy to categorize WAY too many mines as dangerous and in need of federal dollars to reclaim. Utah seems to be inflating figures in order to justify asking for a lopsided share of our tax dollars and federal coal royalties in order to backfill and break these windows into our geology. Just goes to show you there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.

Utah claims 100% of their mines are extreme safety hazards AND environmentally degraded sites

No other State makes such outrageous and unsupported claims.

UT AMRP of DOGM leads the West in Junk Science

State Total Sites #Safety features #Environ Degrad % CA 47084 164795 5200 3 AZ 50000 59400 9900 17 NV 16000 51000 150 .29 MT 6000 22000 331 2 *UT* 17000 17000 17000 100 CO 7300 17000 150 1 NM 800 15000 300 2 WA 3629 1608 50 3 WY 956 519 437 84 AK 469 235 99 42

UT BLM has used the 17K figure in their workload planning document:

https://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALS__REALTY__AND_RESOURCE_PROTECTION_/aml/aml_strategic_plan.Par.62165.File.tmp/AMLStrategicPlan%20Utah.pdf

the DOI audit report on abandoned mines also used the 17K Utah figure. a FOIA request yielded this document dump:
http://www.governmentattic.org/11docs/

Q: How Many Mines are REALLY left to Close? A: 402

How many mines in Utah are really left to close? These figures are courtesy of the Utah Mineral Occurrence System, and the database can be accessed here:

http://geology.utah.gov/resources/data-databases/utah-mineral-occurrence-system/

THE MYTH of 17K Mines Left to Close

HOW MANY MINES LEFT TO CLOSE? NOT 17,000!!!

UMOS Count of all mines in UT 8144 less Sand and Gravel Pits (2058) less Coal Mines (842) less Oil and Gas Wells (140) less Stone Quarries (149) less Cinders (59) less H20 Wells (38) less Brine Wells (133) Of the Remaining 4726 HARDROCK Mines % Uranium 1314 27.8 Pb 537 11.4 Cu 394 8.3 Au 372 7.9 Ag 292 6.2 The rest 1817 38.4 BUT of the 4726 HARDROCK mines left--DOGM has closed (4324) of them LEAVING ONLY........................→ 402 <-- Left to be Sealed!!

UTAH needs to STOP BACKFILLING MINES before there are no more historic mines left!

They are truly windows into the earth and represent our only ability to review and enjoy our mineral diversity.

Go to http://www.minerals.russhartill.com to learn more about abandoned mine reclamation and the war on mining history

Footnotes:

Here are my Sources:


1. UT mineral occurrence system http://geology.utah.gov/resources/data-databases/utah-mineral-occurrence-system/

..over 7900, NOT 17K

2.GAO report with 17k figure p15:http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-08-574T

GAO report update:http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-834T

Caution! This report shows how loosey-goosey and headache inducing the whole counting mines process is.

3. Number of UT Hardrock closures counted from OSM and UT DOGM reports: http://www.osmre.gov/resources/annualReports.shtm

So, the next time you read that 17K dangerous mines exist in UT, challenge them to give you a list of each and every one! They'll say they won't give this to you, but the truth is they can't. Challenge them to show you their methodology of exactly how they came up with 17k! The bottom line is that they don't know. These are only estimates they throw at us taxpayers. Wildly exaggerated estimates at that.

How do they justify claiming that over half of all environmentally degraded sites in the West exist in Utah? Especially when UT only has 10% of the West's mine sites?

Could it be that they err so much in order to justify requesting millions of dollars to target for erasing these historic mines while allowing 75 year old coal mine fires to continue burning? because its easier to backfill a shaft or adit than it is to put out an underground mine fire? Federal revenues should not be used to erase mining history when better uses for spending it can be found.It has been said that a mine is a hole in the ground owned by a liar. Well nowadays in Utah a mine is a hole in the ground counted by a liar.Instead of worrying about falling into these holes in the ground you should be worried about falling for their figures. Figures don't lie but liars DO figure

UT Mine closure head Luci Malin says thousands of mines exist in UT:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=695&sid=14651171

But this coal mine fire still rages:
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=960&sid=17954806

DOGM: Put out coal fires and stop erasing mining history.The mining landscape of the American West is a window into the earth and a book that needs to be studied, not backfilled. Agencies claim to preserve and honor and maintain the historic integrity of the aesthetic mining landscape but how can that be when they pour mine dumps down shafts and into adits? They also claim their closures have no significant impact on history yet they prohibit consultants and contractors from entering mines in order to survey and assess the history underground.If consultants are contractually prohibited from entering mines how can mining history be properly documented and assessed?Write and tell OSM what you think of UT backfilling these books and windows into the earth.

http://www.osmre.gov/programs/oversight.shtm