Free and Open: The 1872 Mining Law · Episode 7 of 10 · 23 min
Stay Out, Stay Alive: The Hole That Kills You
About twenty-nine people a year died recreating on mine property over the decade ending 2008, mostly drowning in flooded pits, falling down hidden shafts, or breathing air that cannot sustain life. Nearly half were fifteen to twenty-five. The episode explains the hazards, what closure takes, and why coal's fee-funded cleanup received $11.3 billion while hardrock gets about five million dollars a year.
Where it happens
- Colorado+7 more episodesState with an estimated 23,000 abandoned mines and its own safety campaign
- Arizona+2 more episodesAbandoned gold-mine shaft where a man fell about 100 feet in 2018
Timeline
- May 10, 1872General Mining Act passes with no royalty, reclamation fee, or closure provision
- 1977Coal gets a per-ton reclamation fee that funds abandoned-mine cleanup; hardrock gets none
- 1999Mine Safety and Health Administration launches the Stay Out, Stay Alive campaign
- October 2018A hiker falls down an abandoned Arizona shaft and is rescued after two days
- March 2020GAO finds about 67,000 physical-safety hazards among 140,000 abandoned features on federal land
- November 2021Infrastructure law gives coal cleanup $11.3 billion; hardrock program gets about $5 million a year
Still debated
Estimates of how many abandoned mines exist and what cleanup would cost remain unreconciled. Whether a hardrock reclamation fee would fund closures or chill investment is unresolved, as is the tension between gating mines and access for explorers.