How many abandoned mines are in Valdez-Cordova, Alaska?

Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Valdez-Cordova, Alaska

Valdez-Cordova, Alaska has no mine or prospect features in the USGS topographic-map compilation. MSHA's register carries 14 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Valdez-Cordova, 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: 14

0 MSHA mines abandoned and sealed

MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned14 on register

Brice Inc. Portable #A
Surface metal/non-metal · Brice Incorporated · MSHA ID 5001231

Abandoned 2024-10-01
Caldwell #8
Surface metal/non-metal · Tenas Lake Mining LLC · MSHA ID 5001962

Abandoned 2012-10-11
Cliff Mine
Underground metal/non-metal · Wgm Inc · MSHA ID 5001509

Abandoned 1993-09-19
Copper Valley Portable Crusher
Surface metal/non-metal · Copper Valley Construction Company · MSHA ID 5001500

Abandoned 1993-08-17
J T Portable Crusher
Surface metal/non-metal · J T Construction · MSHA ID 5001515

Abandoned 1993-09-13
Knik Portable
Surface metal/non-metal · Knik Construction · MSHA ID 5002042

Abandoned 2024-10-01
Mineral Creek Mine
Surface metal/non-metal · David Dempsey Mining LLC · MSHA ID 5001559

Abandoned 2021-10-01
Portable Powerscreen / Pioneer Jaw
Surface metal/non-metal · Eagle Contracting Incorporated · MSHA ID 5001417

Abandoned 2014-10-01
Slate Creek Mine
Surface metal/non-metal · Slate Creek Mining · MSHA ID 5001548

Abandoned 2021-04-03
Thanks at Last
Surface metal/non-metal · Joe Van Note and James Williams · MSHA ID 5001907

Abandoned 2009-10-01
The Slim Chance
Surface metal/non-metal · Ditman Placer Gold Inc · MSHA ID 5000326

Abandoned 2012-10-12
Valdez Mining Co
Surface metal/non-metal · Joe Van Note · MSHA ID 5001906

Abandoned 2009-10-01
White Creek
Surface metal/non-metal · Highlight Canyon LLC · MSHA ID 5001510

Abandoned 2014-10-01
Y pit Whitshed
Surface metal/non-metal · Eagle Contracting Corporation · MSHA ID 5001987

Abandoned 2019-10-01

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

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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

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.