The vast legacy of historic mining in Nevada predates the Civil War and will continue to pose safety risks for years to come. Nevada’s public lands offer infinite opportunities for adventure and discovery, but abandoned mines should not be one of them. The life-threatening physical and chemical risks posed by these decaying features are completely unpredictable, and all of the valuable artifacts were removed long ago. Please stay out and stay alive!

Photos of dangerous abandoned mine openings

With an estimated 300,000 abandoned mine lands (AML) features, of which 50,000 pose significant risks to human safety, Nevada leads the west in number of AML challenges to remediate.  The Nevada BLM AML program has three components: historic physical safety hazards, historic watershed/chemical contamination sites such as old millsites or tailings impoundments, and contemporary, modern mines and millsites which have been abandoned or become bankrupt. Fortunately, Nevada also has a nationally recognized collaboration, including state agencies, other federal entities, conservation groups, academic scientists, the Nevada Mining Association, individual mines and equipment dealers, tribal entities, and others who are making great and continuous progress in eliminating Nevada's legacy of abandoned mine problems.

Closing Abandoned Mines
• The BLM Nevada abandoned mine program is continuously seeking and closing old mine hazards statewide, with special attention to those which are close to inhabited places and areas of high public use.

• With our many Federal, state, and private partners about 15,000 of the estimated 50,000 dangerous sites in Nevada have been discovered, inventoried, and fenced; and nearly 600 are permanently closed.

• We are sealing nearly 200 of these most dangerous sites per year, either by bat gating, backfilling with rock, or closing with expanding foam.

• We also continue to remediate environmental and physical hazards associated with abandoned mill and processing sites and the toxic byproducts associated with them. In most years, Nevada’s progress has equaled or exceeded that of the other western states combined.

Partners and Funding
In addition to BLM appropriated funds, Nevada has successfully competed for funds through the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act (SNPLMA) for eight projects. BLM Nevada received funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for 10 projects totaling about $15 million. 

Nevada American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Projects

Accomplishments from these opportunities include:
• completion of the abandoned mine inventory for southern Nevada;
• closure of hundreds of hazards;
• remediation of four large environmentally dangerous mines;
• completion of three cadastral surveys of historic mining areas where the land ownership status had never been determined.

The BLM Nevada abandoned mine program has been repeatedly formally recognized for its accomplishments at the national level many times and continues to be a model for other programs.