In the Media: Abandoned Mine Lands

The University of Arizona’s own Julie Neilson, director of the Center for Environmentally Sustainable Mining, and Mark Barton, director of the Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources, were both featured in The Buzz, discussing the impacts of abandoned mine lands, and local remediation work. 

“Arizona has an abandoned mine lands problem,” says Zachary Ziegler, NPR The Buzz reporter. There are some estimates that suggest Arizona has upwards of 200,000 abandoned mines, all the way from small “mom and pop” single shafts, to larger historical mines. 

In the interview, Barton discussed the digitization of documents and new technology to find these mines and consolidate the data. We’re “using remote sensing… and we're using inference that comes from our own understanding of basic geology.” 

Abandoned mines pose a variety of environmental and health issues. “You have all these waste piles, and I think we have to separate where the ore was excavated, which is a site that you could fall into, versus the contamination associated with the smelters, tailings and waste rock piles,” says Neilson. 

Check out the story on The Buzz to hear more!