In Utah, there are 174 mining districts illustrating the rich mining history in the state. Silver, copper, coal and uranium have all been unearthed from Utah’s lands. This rich mining legacy has left in its wake thousands of open abandoned mine shafts and adits, dilapidated structures such as headframes and buildings and eroding waste dumps (also known as mine dumps). These waste dumps often contain elevated levels of heavy metals, such as cadmium, arsenic, lead, zinc and other minerals.
The number of abandoned mines on Bureau of Land Management lands in Utah could number between 8,000 and 11,000, but no complete inventory of Please log in to see the rest of this story.
