Abandoned mines in Butte County, California

1. Mine openings

   shafts, adits, air shafts, portals and vertical openings: the ways into underground workings
   152 38.8%
2. Prospect pits and trenches

   shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
   66 16.8%
3. Mines and surface workings

   labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
   31 7.9%
4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits

   construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
   52 13.3%
5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob

   what mining left above ground
   91 23.2%

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.

1. AGGREGATE MATERIAL PROCESSING IN

   Surface metal/non-metal · Aggregate Material Processing Inc · MSHA ID 0405358
   Abandoned 2002-05-09
2. Almond

   Surface metal/non-metal · Granite Construction Company · MSHA ID 0405807
   Abandoned 2011-08-03
3. ALMOND AVENUE MINE

   Surface metal/non-metal · Butte County Public Works · MSHA ID 0405422
   Abandoned 2000-10-05
4. Bailey Pit & Mill

   Surface metal/non-metal · J L Bailey & Son · MSHA ID 0403137
   Abandoned 1983-07-25
5. Bangor Quarry

   Surface metal/non-metal · Basalt Rock Div-Dillingham Heavy Const Inc · MSHA ID 0404725
   Abandoned 1985-07-22
6. Bangor Quarry

   Surface metal/non-metal · Nordic Industries Inc · MSHA ID 0404895
   Abandoned 1992-07-20
7. Blue Lead

   Surface metal/non-metal · Nordic Industries Inc · MSHA ID 0404769
   Abandoned 1994-09-23
8. Carr Mine

   Surface metal/non-metal · Galli Exploration Associates · MSHA ID 0404493
   Abandoned 1984-10-03
9. Cherokee Mine

   Underground metal/non-metal · Cherokee Joint Venture · MSHA ID 0404004
   Abandoned 1990-09-21
10. Chico Plant

    Surface metal/non-metal · Butte Creek Rock Company · MSHA ID 0401670
    Abandoned 1981-12-08
11. Chico Plant

    Surface metal/non-metal · Mathews Readymix Inc · MSHA ID 0402698
    Abandoned 1982-05-21
12. Chico Quarry & Mill

    Surface metal/non-metal · Luhr Brothers Inc · MSHA ID 0403861
    Abandoned 1979-08-21
13. Cooper Pit And Mill

    Surface metal/non-metal · Cooper Ready Mix · MSHA ID 0403768
    Abandoned 1982-05-21
14. Crystal Dawn #1

    Underground metal/non-metal · Crystal Dawn Mining Company · MSHA ID 0404432
    Abandoned 1982-06-16
15. Diamler

    Surface metal/non-metal · Granite Construction Company · MSHA ID 0405692
    Abandoned 2009-02-20
16. Dry Creek Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · W Herbert Wilson · MSHA ID 0402141
    Abandoned 1982-10-06
17. FRANKLIN SAND PLANT

    Surface metal/non-metal · Franklin Construction Inc · MSHA ID 0405084
    Abandoned 2019-05-20
18. Garrison'S Crater #2

    Underground metal/non-metal · Diana Lynn F Garrison · MSHA ID 0404530
    Abandoned 1982-06-16
19. Geraldine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Geraldine Mine · MSHA ID 0405828
    Abandoned 2011-10-04
20. Glassburn Aggregates

    Surface metal/non-metal · Glassburn Aggregates · MSHA ID 0405610
    Abandoned 2005-10-31
21. Gridley Pit And Mill

    Surface metal/non-metal · Mathews Readymix Inc · MSHA ID 0401855
    Abandoned 1982-08-09
22. Harpy #1

    Underground metal/non-metal · H-D-M Industries · MSHA ID 0404434
    Abandoned 1982-06-16
23. Huchlebaum Mine

    Surface metal/non-metal · Huchlebaum Partners · MSHA ID 0404514
    Abandoned 1982-06-16
24. James Venture Corp.

    Surface metal/non-metal · James Venture Corp. · MSHA ID 0405562
    Abandoned 2005-12-15
25. Jeremiah-Randell #1

    Underground metal/non-metal · H-D-M Industries · MSHA ID 0404433
    Abandoned 1982-06-16
26. Lower Emma Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Ddmj Enterprises · MSHA ID 0405225
    Abandoned 1996-03-08
27. LUCKY 7 PIT

    Surface metal/non-metal · Branson Enterprise Inc · MSHA ID 0405086
    Abandoned 2026-06-05
28. M-Jon #1

    Underground metal/non-metal · George A Crader Iii · MSHA ID 0404529
    Abandoned 1982-06-16
29. Marler Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Marler Sand & Gravel · MSHA ID 0404539
    Abandoned 1982-08-09
30. Mineral Slide

    Underground metal/non-metal · Singing Creek Mines · MSHA ID 0404608
    Abandoned 1985-07-18
31. Minniehaha Mine

    Underground metal/non-metal · Hidden Treasure Mining Company · MSHA ID 0404540
    Abandoned 1983-07-25
32. New Era Mine

    Surface metal/non-metal · New Era Mines · MSHA ID 0404545
    Abandoned 1983-06-07
33. New Era Mining Corp

    Surface metal/non-metal · North Continent Land and Timber · MSHA ID 0405107
    Abandoned 2008-10-13
34. NorCal Sand and Rock

    Surface metal/non-metal · NorCal Sand and Rock Inc. · MSHA ID 0405547
    Abandoned 2025-05-27
35. Ohio Dix

    Underground metal/non-metal · Queenstake Resources · MSHA ID 0404698
    Abandoned 1984-05-21
36. Pentz Gravel Pit And Mill

    Surface metal/non-metal · A Moss & G Weeks · MSHA ID 0401908
    Abandoned 1982-08-09
37. Pentz Pit

    Surface metal/non-metal · Baldwin Contracting Company Inc · MSHA ID 0401699
    Abandoned 2003-03-30
38. PINE CREEK GRAVEL OPERATION

    Surface metal/non-metal · Anderson Brothers Corp · MSHA ID 0405423
    Abandoned 2001-04-12
39. PORTABLE #1

    Surface metal/non-metal · PHAZE CONCRETE · MSHA ID 0405912
    Abandoned 2016-06-07
40. REYNOLDS RESOURCE MINE

    Surface metal/non-metal · REYNOLDS ROOMS INC. · MSHA ID 0405977
    Abandoned 2025-02-19
41. Vance Avenue Rock Plant

    Surface metal/non-metal · Mathews Readymix Inc · MSHA ID 0404885
    Abandoned 1993-06-21

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

• San Bernardino County 14,976
• Inyo County 11,475
• Kern County 4,879
• Riverside County 3,227
• Mono County 2,946
• Siskiyou County 2,362
• Imperial County 1,232
• Mariposa County 1,079
• Tuolumne County 948
• San Diego County 901
• Calaveras County 840
• Shasta County 832

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.