Jump to main content or area navigation.

Contact Us

Superfund

   

Abandoned Mine Lands

Cleaning Up Mine Sites

Groud water treatment facility at the Gilt Edge Mine (South Dakota)

Highlights

Abandoned mine lands (AMLs) are those lands, waters and surrounding watersheds where extraction, beneficiation or processing of ores and minerals has occurred. AMLs can pose serious threats to human health and the environment. EPA has a range of resources related to the environmental risks and challenges from AMLs as well as risk management approaches and opportunities to explore innovative reuse opportunities at these sites.

Basic Information - basic information about the AMLs and EPA's AML Program.

AML Site Information - information about abandoned hardrock mines and mineral processing sites, including sites on the National Priorities List (NPL).

Policy & Guidance - EPA policy and guidance documents that have direct applications to the assessment and remediation of abandoned mine lands.

Technical Resources - technical reports, studies, and information on conferences and meeting proceedings related to EPA's Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Program.

Revitalization & Reuse - links and fact sheets pertaining to revitalization and reuse.

Mineral Processing Sectors - Gold/Silver, Lead, Iron, Copper, Zinc, Uranium, Phosphate, Extraction, Beneficiation, and/or Processing

Related Links - more information about AMLs.

Where You Live - information about AMLs near you and provides information from EPA regional offices.

States - information on statutory and regulatory authority, policies, site inventories and state technical resources.

Tribes - provides information about AML management on Tribal Lands.



Palmerton Zinc Sites (PA) (Palmerton Zinc Pile Case Study (PDF) (9pp, 900K, About PDF))

  • Before remediation, the once forested mountainside.
    (source: EPA)

  • After cleanup, seeding of mountainside by aircraft.
    (source: TimesNews)

  • Tree saplings now established in the stabilized soil.
    (source: EPA)

AML Home | Basic Information | Where You Live | AML Site Information
Policy & Guidance | Technical Resources | Revitalization & Reuse
Mineral Processing Sectors | Related Links | States | Tribes | Glossary