Abandoned Mine Site Inventory – Construction Project Mgmt. & Technical Services
Client: Colorado Division of Minerals & Geology (DMG)
Location: Colorado, United States

This project was active from July 1999 through December 2001. MES provided engineering services for mine reclamation, project development, and construction management which consisted of research, field location of approximately 325 mine openings, GPS surveys, development of project GIS database and maps, identified the land status of inactive mine features, categorization of the openings, and selection/design of appropriate closure technique, preparation of specifications, bid documents, and construction management of contractors to Colorado DMG for mine reclamation contracts.

The five components of the project included:

1. Inventory and closure of very remote high altitude mines along the 26-mile segment of the Henson Creek drainage from Lake City, Colorado to the summit of Engineer Pass for the Bureau of Land Management as the funding agency to DMG. Some of this work was supported by pack mule hauling of supplies into remote and Wilderness areas.

2. Inventory and closure of very remote and high elevation mines in the Buckskin Gulch drainage west of Alma, Colorado. This work utilized helicopters for transport.

3. Inventory of remote and high elevation sites in the vicinity of Creede, Colorado for USFS as a funding agency to DMG.

4. Design and construction management of a waste landfill closure, where uranium tailings and municipal garbage had been placed into an inactive surface coal mine site. This portion of the work scope was performed by sub- consultant John Jankousky, P.E., then at Parsons (now at EME Solutions).

5. Peer review of standard State of Colorado construction specifications for mine closures.