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Abandoned mines › Montana
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Richland County, Montana

Richland County, Montana has 120 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1966–1989, including 13 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 31 prospect pits; 4 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 118 problems in the county, 7 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 12 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Richland County, 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)
120
Mine openings
13
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
7
MSHA mines marked abandoned
12
4 features carry a name31 prospect pits31 quadrangle maps, published 1966–1989 118 OSMRE problems, 111 reclaimed 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
    50 21.0%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    31 13.0%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    4 1.7%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    72 30.3%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    19 8.0%
  6. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    7 2.9%
  7. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    54 22.7%
  8. Other
    symbols outside the classes above
    1 0.4%
Named features on the maps4 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Knife River Mine Strip Mine area
Knife River Mine Strip Mine area
Knife River Mine Strip Mine area
Thiel Mine Adit

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.

OSMRE abandoned mine land problems118 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Ahern P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Ahern P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Ahern P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Ahern P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Birch P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Birch P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P3 Equipment Facility Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Canyon Creek P3 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Completed
Fairview P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Fairview P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Fairview P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Fairview P3 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Completed
Fairview P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Fairview - Jennison Subsidence P1 Subsidence In Reclamation
Fairview - Jennison Subsidence P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Fairview Sullivan Emergency P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Flom P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Flom P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Flom P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Flom P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Flom P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Fritchie P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Fritchie P3 Mine Opening Reclamation Completed
Fritchie P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Gardner Emergency P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Gardner Emergency PB 403(b) Water Supplies Reclamation Pending
Gorsage P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Gorsage P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Gorsage P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Grumst-jennison P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Grumst-jennison P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Grunst-jennison P1 Subsidence Reclamation Pending
Grunst-jennison P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Grunst-jennison P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Grunst-jennison P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Grunst-jennison P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Hardscrabble P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Hardscrabble P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Hardscrabble P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Hardscrabble P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Hardscrabble P3 Equipment Facility Reclamation Completed
Hardscrabble P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Iversen Mine P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Johnson P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Johnson P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Johnson P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Johnson (goodwin) P1 Subsidence In Reclamation
Johnson (goodwin) P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Johnson (goodwin) P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Johnson (goodwin) P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Johnson (goodwin) P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Johnson Hill Group P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Johnson Hill Group P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Johnson Hill Group P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Johnson Hill Group P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Johnson Hill Group P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Lambert Ii P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Lambert Ii P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Lambert Ii Ne P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Lambert Ii Ne P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Larson Richland County P2 Subsidence In Reclamation
Lemieux Park P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Lemieux Park P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Lemieux Park P3 Equipment Facility Reclamation Completed
Lemieux Park P3 Pits Reclamation Completed
Linde Mine P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Mine A P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Mine A P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Mine A P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Otto Pust P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Otto Pust P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Otto Pust P2 Subsidence In Reclamation
Otto Pust P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Otto Pust P3 Equipment Facility Reclamation Completed
Otto Pust P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Palmer P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Palmer P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Palmer P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Panasuk P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Ruffato P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Ruffato P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Schlenz P1 Portals Reclamation Completed
Schlenz P1 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Seliber & Motzko P2 Clogged Stream Lands Reclamation Completed
Seliber & Motzko P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Seliber & Motzko P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Seliber & Motzko P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Seliber & Motzko P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Seven Sisters P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Seven Sisters P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Seven Sisters P3 Gobs Reclamation Completed
Seven Sisters P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Shadwell Creek P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Shadwell Creek P2 Surface Burning Reclamation Completed
Shadwell Creek P2 Underground Mine Fires Reclamation Completed
Sidney Airport P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Sidney Airport P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Sidney Airport P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mine P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mine P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mine P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 1 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 1 P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 1 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 2 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 2 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 3 P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 3 P2 Portals Reclamation Completed
Sidney Mines Area 3 P3 Spoil Area Reclamation Completed
Sullivan Fairview Emergency P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Vaira P2 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Vaira P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Vanderhoff Mine P2 Subsidence Reclamation Pending

Problem types carry OSMRE's priority prefix: P1 and P2 are threats to health, safety and property, P3 is environmental. A problem area is a cluster of problems reclaimed as one project; several rows can share one location.

MSHA-registered mines with status Abandoned12 on register
  1. Bay Materials Plant 002
    Surface metal/non-metal · Bay Materials, LLC · MSHA ID 2402585
    Abandoned
  2. Ernest Heidecker Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Fisher Sand & Gravel Company · MSHA ID 2401709
    Abandoned
  3. Gustafson
    Surface metal/non-metal · COR, Inc · MSHA ID 2402675
    Abandoned
  4. Herness
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pulicic Contracting Inc. · MSHA ID 2402614
    Abandoned
  5. Keestrack Screen Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Excel Industries, Inc. · MSHA ID 2402613
    Abandoned
  6. Linde Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Summit Energy Services · MSHA ID 2402629
    Abandoned
  7. Portable Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · J. D. Services Inc · MSHA ID 3200874
    Abandoned
  8. Richland Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · Richland County · MSHA ID 2402033
    Abandoned
  9. RICHLAND PORTABLE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Richland County Public Works · MSHA ID 2402092
    Abandoned
  10. Screening Plant #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · MK Weeden Construction · MSHA ID 2402547
    Abandoned
  11. State Lands #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Excel Industries Inc · MSHA ID 2402657
    Abandoned
  12. Thunder
    Surface metal/non-metal · Northern Mining & Aggregate Solutions, LLP · MSHA ID 2402647
    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
Gravel Pit 55
Prospect Pit 31
P2 Subsidence 28
P2 Portals 20
Gravel Pit 16
P2 Vertical Openings 14
Adit 13
P3 Spoil Area 10
P1 Subsidence 9
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 7
P3 Gobs 5
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 4
P3 Pits 4
P3 Equipment Facility 4
Strip Mine 3
P2 Underground Mine Fires 3
P3 Industrial/Residential Waste 2
P1 Vertical Openings 2
PB 403(b) Water Supplies 1
Scoria Pit 1
P1 Portals 1
P2 Surface Burning 1
P3 Mine Opening 1
P2 Clogged Stream Lands 1
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 1
P2 Polluted Water: Agricultural & Industrial 1
Other counties in MontanaAll 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.