Acceptable way to close mines?

[Kiel]

Just as a curious topic of discussion, what would be your acceptable way to close an abandoned mine? Why is that acceptable to you?

[ryan162]

Just as a curious topic of discussion, what would be your acceptable way to close an abandoned mine? Why is that acceptable to you?

I don't know of any reasons to physically close a mine. I'm not sold on environmental hazards but admittedly I dont know much about them. Human safety is silly since cross walks elevated above busy intersections will easily save more lives and there are no tax funds for that. Pubic education and maybe signs like these are good enough and cheap (relativity)

[img]http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2044/1...6ef148ef_z.jpg[/img]

[UnderUtah]

I think that risk assessment data should drive the quantity / methods of closure, but as I found after receiving information related to a recent query of the DOGM, they consider any hole, vertical or horizontal, greater than ten feet deep to be a hazard that they have a Congressional Mandate to close. I asked because I was curious about where a recent "Public Scare Announcement" TV news spot had gotten their data. I emailed the reporter and he indicated that the State supplied the 17,000 open abandoned mines number, but there was no accompanying spreadhseet or list of these alleged death traps.

After receiving a lengthy reply from the DOGM, who I must give credit for responding to such requests, I was lead to believe that the number could be between 10K and 20K. Absolutely frightening!

Closures should be done in certain circumstances, and especially on non-timbered and ant-trap collared shafts. These can be very sneaky. I like to see the cement collar / rebar closures where appropriate. I do not like to see the "foam" closures, as these closures, though sometimes used to preserve surface structures, can also be employed to completely erase the evidence that a shaft ever existed (see Dirty Jobs - Mike Rowe closes a mine shaft in California with foam and the end product is a "there was never any human activity here" site.) These measures also cut-off any hopes of airflow into the remaining workings and can tap and entomb bats. Foaming also makes it impossible to explore or survey the workings less you have a State-approved plan of operation and can dig the foam out.

Hand-stacking, machine backfilling, or blasting of adits is also a problem for many of the same reasons as foaming shafts. As a means of preventing "unauthorized" access these methods have been applied with a liberal interpretation of what is adequate to prevent access. Some are robust and would require mechanical removal and others amount to little more than a fist full of stones piled up in front of a portal. Guess you don't have to be thorough to bill the DOGM millions for closure work.

Those adits leading to complex workings should be considered for bat gate style closures if necessary. These gates provide free flow of air, wildlife (except for the bears, cougars, lions, and the occasional bloodthirsty yeti that we are warned call mines home on a regular basis) and water. As has been observed these can be subject to vandalism and expose the public to an eagerly awaiting deathtrap.

I understand that the State has a zero tolerance policy for mines - anything deeper than 10ft WILL (allegedly) KILL YOU. With no end in sight for funding it makes you wonder how much longer any underground workings will remain open to exploration and documentation. I would like to believe that if more people understood the wealth of cultural artifacts and information that can be experienced and gained by a safely executed trip underground that things would be different.

[sanpet]

Utah underground You have made some very good points. I do agree with you.

[AuExplorer]

I agree, it depends on the mine and the unique set ofcircumstances or hazards associated with the property. I do feel, the rebar batgate is sufficient in most cases to keep the uninformed public from makingfatal mistakes especially as residential neighborhoods are encroachinghistorical mining areas. The cost of some rebar and some creative fabricationto incorporate a lockable gate in comparison to saving the life of a weekendnovice explorer and quite possibly the lives of a rescue/recovery team are noteven in the same ball park. In my opinion, Lockem down, not close them up.

[Susan Ann Pelton]

When one of my sons was in boys scouts I found out the camping trip they went on involved exploring old mines in Box Elder County. These mines have been closed up for decades. The boys and their leaders had no safety training or even education into old mines. They did not see any problem with these young teens going into the old mines.
Every winter when it was not worth being up at the mine due to snow, my dad shut the mine down by blasting the entrance. In the late spring when we returned the mine was reopened. He did not want people messing around due to the danger not to mention the thievery. Maybe in an area that sees some traffic a rebar closure might be ok. Othewise there is plenty of time for a determined person to dig out rebar or any other method of closing.