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Abandoned mines › Montana
Abandoned mine inventory

Abandoned mines in Silver Bow County, Montana

Silver Bow County, Montana has 2,397 mine and prospect features on USGS topographic maps published 1954–1997, including 262 mine openings (shafts, adits and air shafts) and 2,009 prospect pits; 16 of the features carry a name on the map. OSMRE's abandoned mine land inventory lists 19 problems in the county, 13 of them not yet reclaimed. MSHA's register carries 43 mines in the county with status Abandoned or Abandoned and Sealed.

Every mine and prospect feature the USGS digitized from historical topographic maps covering Silver Bow 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)
2,397
Mine openings
262
OSMRE problems unreclaimed
13
MSHA mines marked abandoned
43
16 features carry a name2,009 prospect pits18 quadrangle maps, published 1954–1997 19 OSMRE problems, 6 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
    268 11.1%
  2. Prospect pits and trenches
    shallow exploration diggings that never became a mine
    2,009 83.2%
  3. Mines and surface workings
    labelled mines, open pits, strip mines, placer and hydraulic workings
    19 0.8%
  4. Quarries, gravel and borrow pits
    construction-material and industrial-mineral extraction
    27 1.1%
  5. Dumps, tailings, spoil and gob
    what mining left above ground
    84 3.5%
  6. Mills, tipples and facilities
    processing plants and hazardous structures
    2 0.1%
  7. Other reclamation problems
    highwalls, subsidence, polluted or clogged water, fires, slides and gases in OSMRE's inventory
    6 0.2%
  8. Other
    symbols outside the classes above
    1 0.0%
Named features on the maps16 named · from the USGS compilation
Name on map Feature
Anselmo Mine Mine Shaft
Badger State Mine Mine Shaft
Berkeley Pit Open Pit Mine area
Butte and Zenith Mine Mine Shaft
Granite Mountain Mine Mine Shaft
Highland Mine Mine Shaft
Highland Mine Prospect Pit
Kelley Mine - Belmount Mine Mine Shaft
Lexington Mine Adit
Maiden Rock Mine Prospect Pit
Missoula Mine Mine Shaft
Mountain Con Mine Mine Shaft
Original Mine Mine Shaft
Patsy Ann Mine Adit
Steward Mine Mine Shaft
Travona Mine Mine Shaft

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 problems19 on inventory
Problem area Problem Status
Butte Silver Bow Mine Subsidence P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Completed
Carrie Mine P1 Subsidence Reclamation Completed
Clipper Problem type not recorded In Reclamation
Highland P2 Clogged Stream Lands Reclamation Completed
Highland P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Completed
Highland P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Completed
Indian Queen P2 Clogged Stream Lands Reclamation Pending
Indian Queen P2 Clogged Streams Reclamation Pending
Indian Queen P2 Industrial/Residential Waste Reclamation Pending
Indian Queen P2 Portals Reclamation Pending
Mary Emmee/clinton P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Mary Emmee/clinton P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Pending
Mary Emmee/clinton P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Old Glory P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Old Glory P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities Reclamation Pending
Old Glory P2 Vertical Openings Reclamation Pending
Rising Sun P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments Reclamation Pending
Rising Sun P2 Portals Reclamation Pending
West Butte Hmo P2 Portals Reclamation Completed

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 Abandoned43 on register
  1. Alice-Rainbow
    Surface metal/non-metal · New Butte Mining Inc · MSHA ID 2401842
    Abandoned
  2. Anaconda Co Maintenance Shop
    Facility metal/non-metal · Anaconda Minerals Company · MSHA ID 2400724
    Abandoned
  3. Anaconda Mines Warehouse
    Facility metal/non-metal · Anaconda Minerals Company · MSHA ID 2400721
    Abandoned
  4. Badger
    Underground metal/non-metal · Butte Blackjack Operating LLC · MSHA ID 2401841
    Abandoned
  5. BEAL MOUNTIAN MINE
    Surface metal/non-metal · Beal Mountain Mining Inc · MSHA ID 2401642
    Abandoned
  6. Boroni Portable Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Boroni Construction Company · MSHA ID 2401509
    Abandoned
  7. Butte
    Surface metal/non-metal · F H Mine Supply · MSHA ID 2402739
    Abandoned
  8. Butte Highlands
    Underground metal/non-metal · Highland Mining LLC. · MSHA ID 2402563
    Abandoned
  9. Butte Silver Bow Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Butte Silver Bow County · MSHA ID 2401907
    Abandoned
  10. Cr 1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Dugdale Construction Company Inc · MSHA ID 2401479
    Abandoned
  11. Crusher Operation
    Surface metal/non-metal · Butte Silver Bow County · MSHA ID 2402732
    Abandoned
  12. El Jay 54 Cone Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Smith Contracting, Inc · MSHA ID 2402420
    Abandoned
  13. Hartl Mini Track 503 Rock Crusher
    Surface metal/non-metal · Smith Contracting Inc. · MSHA ID 2402407
    Abandoned
  14. Hecla Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · National Minerals Corp · MSHA ID 2400687
    Abandoned
  15. Highland Gold Properties Incorporated
    Surface metal/non-metal · Highland Gold Properties Inc · MSHA ID 2401727
    Abandoned
  16. Highland Quarters
    Surface metal/non-metal · Highland Quarters Company · MSHA ID 2401731
    Abandoned
  17. Jeffery Portable Pugmill #2
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jeffery Contracting · MSHA ID 2402490
    Abandoned
  18. Keestrack
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jordan Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2402544
    Abandoned
  19. Kelley
    Facility metal/non-metal · Kelley Resource Recovery Corp · MSHA ID 2402021
    Abandoned
  20. Kelley Complex
    Underground metal/non-metal · Anaconda Minerals Company · MSHA ID 2400710
    Abandoned
  21. Kolberg 710 KDS
    Surface metal/non-metal · Smith Contracting Inc. · MSHA ID 2402421
    Abandoned
  22. Maiden Rock Silica Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Rhone Poulenc North American Chemicals · MSHA ID 2400077
    Abandoned
  23. Medallion Portable
    Surface metal/non-metal · Medallion Minerals Inc · MSHA ID 2401440
    Abandoned
  24. Metso Screen
    Surface metal/non-metal · Smith Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2402336
    Abandoned
  25. Montana Bentonite
    Surface metal/non-metal · Montana Bentonite LLC · MSHA ID 2402539
    Abandoned
  26. Montreal Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · Northmont Resource & Exploration Company · MSHA ID 2401667
    Abandoned
  27. P & L Mine
    Underground metal/non-metal · P & L Mining · MSHA ID 2401803
    Abandoned
  28. Pioneer Concrete-Spangler Pit
    Surface metal/non-metal · Pioneer Concrete & Fuel Inc · MSHA ID 2400483
    Abandoned
  29. PORTABLE CRUSHER
    Surface metal/non-metal · Centennial Concrete Inc · MSHA ID 2402109
    Abandoned
  30. Portable Pug Mill
    Surface metal/non-metal · Jim Gilman Excavating Inc · MSHA ID 2402339
    Abandoned
  31. Precipitation Plants
    Facility metal/non-metal · Anaconda Minerals Company · MSHA ID 2400678
    Abandoned
  32. PUG MILL
    Surface metal/non-metal · Hollow Contracting Inc · MSHA ID 2402141
    Abandoned
  33. SCREEN #63-8171
    Surface metal/non-metal · Montana Department Of Transportation · MSHA ID 2402030
    Abandoned
  34. Screen Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Lavelle Powder Company Inc · MSHA ID 2402024
    Abandoned
  35. Screening Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · AggQuip, LLC · MSHA ID 2402606
    Abandoned
  36. Shamrock Lode
    Surface metal/non-metal · Tom Helehan Owner · MSHA ID 2401514
    Abandoned
  37. Silver Bow Plant
    Facility metal/non-metal · Rhone-Poulenc Basic Chemicals Company · MSHA ID 2400151
    Abandoned
  38. Soap Gulch Quarry- Nusite Stone
    Surface metal/non-metal · Nusite Stone/Clearwater Stone · MSHA ID 2402395
    Abandoned
  39. Sundance Mining & Associates
    Surface metal/non-metal · Sundance Mining & Associates · MSHA ID 2401771
    Abandoned
  40. Thivridge Portable Crusher #1
    Surface metal/non-metal · Leary Thivridge Construction Company · MSHA ID 2401390
    Abandoned
  41. Weed Concentrator
    Underground metal/non-metal · Anaconda Minerals Company · MSHA ID 2400689
    Abandoned
  42. WWSSOU- Rock Quarry
    Surface metal/non-metal · Wasley Excavating LLC · MSHA ID 2402624
    Abandoned
  43. Zeox Butte Plant
    Surface metal/non-metal · Zeox Mineral Materials Corp · MSHA ID 2402529
    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
Prospect Pit 2,009
Mine Shaft 194
Mine Dump 69
Adit 68
Gravel Pit 8
Sand Pit 8
Open Pit Mine or Quarry 7
Tailings - Undifferentiated 7
Open Pit Mine 6
Gravel Pit 5
P2 Dangerous Piles & Embankments 4
Tailings - Pond 4
P2 Vertical Openings 3
Disturbed Surface 3
P2 Portals 3
P2 Clogged Stream Lands 2
P2 Clogged Streams 2
Gravel/Borrow Pit - Undifferentiated 2
P2 Hazardous Equip & Facilities 2
Quarry 2
Open Pit Mine 2
Borrow Pit 1
P1 Subsidence 1
P2 Industrial/Residential Waste 1
Sand Pit 1
Problem type not recorded 1
Strip Mine 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.