National Mine Map Repository

National Mine Map Repository
Agency overview
Formed	1982
Headquarters	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Parent agency	Office of Surface Mining
Website
http://mmr.osmre.gov/

The National Mine Map Repository (NMMR)[1] is part of the United States Department of the Interior (DOI), Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE or OSM). ^[1] The NMMR resides in Green Tree, Pennsylvania, and collects and maintains mine map information and images for the entire country, including data and maps of coal mines in the anthracite coal region of northeastern Pennsylvania. ^[2] The Green Tree facility provides and stores, digitally and in microfilm (aperture cards)^[3] , over 150,000 maps of abandoned mines. This repository contains maps from the 1850s to the present day. It serves as a point of reference for mine maps and other information for both surface and underground mines throughout the United States. It also serves as a location to retrieve mine maps in an emergency. The NMMR provides services ranging from retrieving mine related data for economic analysis to assessing the potential risk associated with underground mining. Through analysis of mine maps and related information, the repository assists private and public sectors in industrial and commercial development, highway construction^[4], and the preservation of public health, safety and welfare. In addition, they collect, reproduce, and maintain a national inventory of mine maps and supporting documentation for private and public interests.

History of the NMMR

The Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act of 1969 established a national mine map repository.^[5] The repository was funded by and assigned to the Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines (BOM) in 1970. A repository was set up at a BOM office in Pittsburgh and Wilkes-Barre^[6] , Pennsylvania and covered all states east of the Mississippi River with the exception of Louisiana and Minnesota. These two states, together with Arizona, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Missouri, and Kansas, were covered by a separate repository at the BOM Intermountain Field Operation Center in Denver, Colorado. A fourth repository, in Spokane, Washington, held the mining archives for the western states of Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Montana, and Idaho.

In 1982 the responsibility of maintaining the repository and its staff was formally transferred to DOI's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Later, when BOM was dissolved in 1996, all of the maps from the BOM offices were consolidated into the current OSM Pittsburgh repository. The Wilkes-Barre repository was closed in 2011^[7], and its collection transferred to the Pittsburgh office^[8], which is designated as the National Mine Map Repository.

The mission of the repository has always been to obtain authoritative maps on past and current mining operations and preserve them on microfilm. Higher priority is given to maps of mines in areas where the potential for adverse impact to the environment is more significant. The NMMR, in addition to being an archival entity concerned with the preservation of mine maps, is also a basic reference file of information on mines. The information is made available to federal and state geological surveys, state mining bureaus, mining companies, oil and gas companies, conservationists, research and planning organizations, water pollution boards, city and industrial planners, highway engineers, building contractors, real estate developers and private citizens.

Today the NMMR facility is equipped with modern map scanning and archiving capability to digitize maps indexing system. The primary archival method remains microfilm although the repository's holdings are increasingly available in digital format.

Information available

NMMR's oldest mine map: 1859 anthracite coal map from Hazleton Coal Co.

The NMMR contains digital and microfilm maps of surface and underground coal, metal and non-metal mines throughout the United States. Some of the information that can be obtained from the repository includes:

• Mine and company names
• Underground mine plans
  • Mains, rooms, and pillars
  • Man-ways, shafts, mine surface openings, barrier pillars and ventilation facilities
• Closure (final) maps
• Adjacent mines
• Geological information
  • Bed name, bed thickness, depth, drill hole data, cross-sections, elevation contours, structures, outcrops, assays
• Geographical data
  • Abandoned railroad lines and stations, coal towns, surface facilities, roads, ponds, streams, and property survey points
• Districts, townships, sections, ranges, counties and municipalities, latitudes and longitudes, elevation bench marks, and surface elevations
• Gas well, oil well, and drill hole locations^[9]

Map acquisition and archiving

The NMMR acquires maps through public outreach directed at state and federal environmental agencies as well as mining companies, engineering and consulting firms, surveying companies, universities, and private citizens. The repository is constantly seeking donations of mine maps to add to the microfilm/digital collection ^[10].

When maps are received from a donor they are scanned and stored in both microfilm and digital archives. The maps, along with a scanned images (upon request) are returned to the donor. The repository does not retain hard copies of maps.

NMMR Procedures

As maps are obtained at the repository, they are assigned a unique six-digit identification number (document number). Data sheets are prepared for each map giving all available information including: map document number; state; county; mine name; mine ID number (MSHA); company name; mine type; and both the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) grid zone and the latitude and longitude of the geo-located point on the map. This information is input into the Mine Map Index System. The sorted maps are then scanned into a digital format and stored on the repository's dedicated 42 terabyte mass storage array.^[11]

The NMMR utilizes different types of scanning equipment to facilitate archiving mine maps made available in a variety of media.

Cruse scanner 60x90"

• Cruse Table Scanner CD 285/1100 ST/FA
  • Scan are: 58x90"
  • Black and white, 8 or 16 bit grayscale, 24 or 48 bit color
  • 220-630 dpi
  • File size 1.1G

• Wicks and Wilson CS75000 GS Scanstation aperture card scanner
  • True 600 dpi
  • Black and white or grayscale

• Wicks and Wilson C250 aperture card scanner
  • 400 dpi
  • black and white or grayscale

Small, portable aperture card scanners are shipped to state agencies as part of an extensive underground mine mapping initiative. ^[12]

Map Gallery

Plan to mine Meteor Crater, AZ

Fort Henry Iron Field

Koehler Mine, Colfax Co., NM with lava inclusions

Cartoon of Cripple Creek Mining District

See also

• CONSOL Energy Mine Map Preservation Project
• Table of Historical Maps

Notes and references

1. ^ U.S. Dept. of the Interior "DOI Bureaus"
2. ^ National Mine Map Repository "Contacts, office locations, and telephone numbers"
3. ^ Edgerton, Curtis D. (1974) (in English). The mine map repository--a source of mine map data.. 8657. Washington: U.S. Bureau of Mines. pp. 3-4. 
4. ^ Ohio Department of Transportation "Update of Abandoned Underground Mine Activities in Ohio"
5. ^ U.S. Dept. of Labor, Mine Safety and Health Administration "Federal Coal Mine Health and Safety Act"
6. ^ Gait, George B (1971). "Microfilming maps of abandoned anthracite mines; mines in the western middle anthracite field.". Information Circular (Washington: U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Mines) 8519. 
7. ^ CitizensVoice.com "Office of Surface Mining to close Wilkes-Barre location"
8. ^ Pottsville Republican, Inc. "Office of Surface Mining to close Wilkes-Barre office in fall"
9. ^ Coyle, Paul R. and Cassidy, Brianne M. "A Resource for Geological and Mining Information: the National Mine Map Repository, Department of the Interior"
10. ^ National Mine Map Repository "The National Mine Map Repository Map Acquisition"
11. ^ National Mine Map Repository "NMMR Map Acquisition"
12. ^ Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA)"Mine Mapping Workshop"