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Abandoned mines › Alaska
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Nome Census Area, Alaska

Nome Census Area, Alaska has 200 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1950–1975, including 7 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 13 prospect pits; 33 of the features carry a name on the map. MSHA's register carries 41 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Nome Census Area, 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)
200
Mine openings
7
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
0
MSHA mines marked abandoned
41
33 features carry a name13 prospect pits29 quadrangle maps, published 1950–1975 0 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed
What the features are
  1. Mine openings
    shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
    7 3.5%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    13 6.5%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    43 21.5%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    1 0.5%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    134 67.0%
  6. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    2 1.0%
Named features on the maps33 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Big Hurrah Mine Open Pit Mine
Big Hurrah Mine Open Pit Mine
Big Hurrah Mine Tailings - Undifferentiated area
Gold Mine Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Gold Mine Open Pit Mine
Lost River Mines Mine Shaft
Lost River Mines Mine Shaft
Lost River Mines Mine Shaft
Lost River Mines Mine Shaft
Placer Gold Mining Area Placer Mine area
Placer Gold Mining Area Placer Mine
Placer Gold Mining Area Placer Mine area
Placer Gold Mining Area Placer Mine area
Prospect Areas Prospect Pit area
Prospect Areas Prospect Pit area
Prospect Areas Prospect Pit area
Sunset Mine Mine
Sunset Mine Tailings - Undifferentiated area
Tailings Pile Tailings - Undifferentiated area
Tailings Piles Tailings - Undifferentiated area
Tin Open Pit Mine
Tin Mine Open Pit Mine area
Tin Mine Open Pit Mine area
Tin Prospect Prospect Pit

A name is the label printed beside the symbol on the map. "First mapped" is the earliest topographic edition that shows the symbol, which bounds the feature's age from above; it is not the date it was worked. Unnamed features (most prospect pits, adits and shafts carry no label) are in the counts above but not this list.

MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned41 on register
  1. 8 Mile Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Crawford Walsh Construction Company · MSHA ID 5001531
    Abandoned
  2. Alaska Mines Corporation
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alaska Mines Corporation · MSHA ID 5001996
    Abandoned
  3. Amerigold LTD
    Surface metal/non-metal · Amerigold LTD · MSHA ID 5001753
    Abandoned
  4. Anderson & Sons Mining
    Surface metal/non-metal · Anderson & Sons LLC · MSHA ID 5002098
    Abandoned
  5. APP Mining
    Surface metal/non-metal · APP Mining · MSHA ID 5001504
    Abandoned
  6. Arctic Whitney Offshore
    Surface metal/non-metal · Arctic Whitney Inc · MSHA ID 5001645
    Abandoned
  7. Basin Creek/Engstrom
    Surface metal/non-metal · Western Exploration · MSHA ID 5001489
    Abandoned
  8. Bear Creek Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · L & B Mining Company · MSHA ID 5001437
    Abandoned
  9. Bliss And Sons
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bliss & Sons · MSHA ID 5001419
    Abandoned
  10. Broken Peck Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Peckenpaugh Mining Inc. · MSHA ID 5001913
    Abandoned
  11. Candle Pit Or Candle
    Surface metal/non-metal · Au Mining Inc · MSHA ID 5001473
    Abandoned
  12. Castle Mountain Mine
    Surface coal · Castle Mountain Mining Company Ltd · MSHA ID 5001599
    Abandoned
  13. Clara Bea Incorporated
    Surface metal/non-metal · Clara Bea Inc · MSHA ID 5001032
    Abandoned
  14. Coffee Creek
    Surface metal/non-metal · Swift Creek Mining · MSHA ID 5001034
    Abandoned
  15. Cripple Creek
    Surface metal/non-metal · Gold Prospectors Association of America · MSHA ID 5001942
    Abandoned
  16. Daniel Martinson
    Surface metal/non-metal · Daniel Martinson · MSHA ID 5001924
    Abandoned
  17. Dry Creek Bench
    Surface metal/non-metal · Crawford Walsh Construction Company · MSHA ID 5001585
    Abandoned
  18. Fimon Trucking
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fimon Trucking · MSHA ID 5002083
    Abandoned
  19. Glacier Creek
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kiewit Pacific Co. · MSHA ID 5001822
    Abandoned
  20. Hansen Gold - Anvil Cr.
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hansen Gold · MSHA ID 5001806
    Abandoned
  21. Jonesville Coal Mine
    Underground coal · Nerox Power Systems Inc · MSHA ID 5001635
    Abandoned
  22. Krutzsch Mining
    Surface metal/non-metal · Krutzsch Mining · MSHA ID 5001758
    Abandoned
  23. Lost Nugget
    Surface metal/non-metal · Niagara, Inc · MSHA ID 5001925
    Abandoned
  24. Maine Monroeville
    Surface metal/non-metal · Frontier Mining, LLC · MSHA ID 5001031
    Abandoned
  25. MS 1890
    Surface metal/non-metal · Freedom Resources, LLC · MSHA ID 5001802
    Abandoned
  26. Nanuuq Gold Project
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alaska Gold Company · MSHA ID 5001850
    Abandoned
  27. Nome Anvil Creek Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nome Alaska Gold Concentrate (NAGC) · MSHA ID 5001846
    Abandoned
  28. Osborne Plant #4 EL
    Surface metal/non-metal · Osborne Construction Co. · MSHA ID 5001720
    Abandoned
  29. Otter Creek Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Aurgold LLC · MSHA ID 5002089
    Abandoned
  30. Portable Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Johnson-Brisk Inc · MSHA ID 5001547
    Abandoned
  31. Portable Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Northcoast Construction Inc · MSHA ID 5001578
    Abandoned
  32. Power Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Knik Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 5001882
    Abandoned
  33. Q Trucking Company
    Surface metal/non-metal · Q Trucking Company · MSHA ID 5001490
    Abandoned
  34. Read Screen All
    Surface metal/non-metal · Alaska Gold Co. LLC · MSHA ID 5002090
    Abandoned
  35. Ridge Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Ridge Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 5001948
    Abandoned
  36. Saramega
    Surface metal/non-metal · murphy mining inc. · MSHA ID 5001930
    Abandoned
  37. Sealand
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sealand Mining · MSHA ID 5002053
    Abandoned
  38. Sweepstakes Creek
    Surface metal/non-metal · Kellindavik LLC · MSHA ID 5001981
    Abandoned
  39. Triple Creek
    Surface metal/non-metal · Paradise Valley Mining LLC · MSHA ID 5001953
    Abandoned
  40. Tundra Mine
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tundra Services · MSHA ID 5001849
    Abandoned
  41. Windfall Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Knik Construction Incorporated · MSHA ID 5001869
    Abandoned

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

By source vocabularythe publishers' own terms
Feature type Features
Tailings - Undifferentiated 134
Open Pit Mine 16
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 11
Prospect Pit 7
Disturbed Surface 7
Prospect Pit 6
Mine Shaft 4
Adit 3
Open Pit Mine 3
Placer Mine 3
Mine 2
Mill Site 2
Gravel Pit 1
Placer Mine 1
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.