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Abandoned mines › Alaska
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Copper River, Alaska

Copper River, Alaska has no mine or prospect features in the USGS topographic-map compilation. MSHA's register carries 24 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Copper River, every OSMRE abandoned mine land problem in the county, and every MSHA-registered mine here with status Abandoned. Named features are listed below; unnamed ones are counted by type. Locations are deliberately not shown: this page says what abandoned workings are in the county, not where to find them. They are dangerous and should not be entered.

Mapped mine features (USGS)
0
Mine openings
0
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
24
0 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed
MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned24 on register
  1. 14 Mile Gravel Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wilson Construction · MSHA ID 5001379
    Abandoned
  2. 27 Mile Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hermon Brothers Construction Company · MSHA ID 5001415
    Abandoned
  3. 3 Mile Bay Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · City Of Cordova · MSHA ID 5001378
    Abandoned
  4. 35 Mile Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rogers & Babler · MSHA ID 5001339
    Abandoned
  5. Blondeau Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Johnson Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 5001340
    Abandoned
  6. Busch-Pearley Creek Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dupere & Associates Inc · MSHA ID 5001551
    Abandoned
  7. Central Rock & Sand
    Surface metal/non-metal · Central Rock & Sand · MSHA ID 5001502
    Abandoned
  8. Dan Creek Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Talmo Inc · MSHA ID 5001380
    Abandoned
  9. Edgerton Junction Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · North Slope Enterprises-S & G Const · MSHA ID 5001405
    Abandoned
  10. Girdwood State Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alaska Department Of Highways · MSHA ID 5001176
    Abandoned
  11. Glendar Rock Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Glendar Enterprises · MSHA ID 5001381
    Abandoned
  12. Golden Eagle Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Territorial Corp · MSHA ID 5001275
    Abandoned
  13. Johnson Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Glacier Products · MSHA ID 5000995
    Abandoned
  14. Johnson Sand & Gravel Incorporated
    Surface metal/non-metal · Johnson Sand & Gravel Inc · MSHA ID 5001542
    Abandoned
  15. Joslin Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jij Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 5001416
    Abandoned
  16. M-K Quarry And Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Morrison-Knudsen Company Inc · MSHA ID 5000900
    Abandoned
  17. M-K Till Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Mk · MSHA ID 5001182
    Abandoned
  18. Material Site 30-0
    Surface metal/non-metal · Perini-Arctic Associates · MSHA ID 5000904
    Abandoned
  19. Pit 133
    Surface metal/non-metal · Northwestern Construction Inc · MSHA ID 5001193
    Abandoned
  20. Ruby Gulch Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alaska Mineral Resources Company · MSHA ID 5001483
    Abandoned
  21. Slana Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alaska Dept/Transportation & Pulic Facilities · MSHA ID 5001257
    Abandoned
  22. Spring Creek Sand & Gravel
    Surface metal/non-metal · Spring Creek Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 5001519
    Abandoned
  23. Tex-Al Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tex-Al Operating Inc · MSHA ID 5001560
    Abandoned
  24. Tudor Road Pit & Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rogers & Babler · MSHA ID 5000437
    Abandoned

Status and date are as reported to MSHA by the operator. Each mine's own page carries its accident, citation and inspection record.

Other counties in AlaskaAll counties →
How to read these numbers

A USGS feature is a symbol on a historical topographic map, there when the map was surveyed; it may since have been sealed, reclaimed, built over or reopened as a working mine, and the map does not say which. An OSMRE row is a problem the abandoned mine land program tracks, not a mine. An MSHA mine is a registered operation whose operator reported abandonment, a record that starts in the 1970s. The three overlap and are never added together. The county is assigned from each feature's coordinates against the Census 2023 county boundaries. The full method is on the national page.

Sources
  1. USGS, Consolidated Prospect- and Mine-Related Features from 7.5- and 15-Minute Topographic Quadrangle Maps of the United States (USMIN)
    597,612 point and area features digitized from about 106,350 historical topographic maps published 1886–2006; public domain (CC0). A feature is a map symbol, not a field-verified site, and the map does not say whether it was still worked.
  2. USGS Fact Sheet 2025–3003, The Abandoned Mine Inventory of the United States
    States that as of 2025 there is no comprehensive national inventory of abandoned mine features, and that the detailed national database now being built will not be published.
  3. OSMRE, Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System (e-AMLIS), public Problems layer
    One row per abandoned mine land problem in a problem area, with its type, funding program and reclamation status; mostly coal mined before the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Coordinates are the problem area's.
  4. MSHA, Mines dataset (Mine Data Retrieval System)
    Every mine registered with MSHA since the 1970s; a mine reads Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed when its operator reported that status. Refreshed weekly.
  5. US Census Bureau, 2023 cartographic county boundaries (1:500,000)
    Each feature's county is assigned by its coordinates against these boundaries, not copied from the source file.
  6. GAO-20-238, Abandoned Hardrock Mines (March 2020)
    Federal agencies had identified at least 140,000 abandoned hardrock mine features on federal land and estimated more than 390,000 more not yet captured in their databases.
  7. Abandoned Hardrock Mine Reclamation (AHMR) Program, US Department of the Interior
    The program the USGS inventory is compiled for. Its appropriations and the 674,000 field-confirmed feature count on this page were provided by the program manager, Office of Environmental Policy and Compliance, and are cited with permission (2026-09-08).
  8. IMCC-NAAMLP Hardrock AML Report
    Page 48 carries the two figures this page leans on: USGS estimates 633,181 of the 725,690 mine features it recorded from historic topographic maps, 87 percent, are hardrock; and state and federal agencies have submitted more than 724,000 AML features to the national database being built, already more than the historic maps hold. Year-by-year AHMR funding is on page 35.