State officials plan to close several abandoned mines in Summit and Wasatch counties in the coming weeks to protect the public as recreation along the Wasatch Front increases.

The Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining will seal 33 openings in Big Cottonwood Canyon and outlying areas in Salt Lake, Summit and Wasatch counties as part of the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Program. The initiative was launched after a state law passed in 1975 made it illegal to abandon mines. The program receives grants each year to eliminate hazards and clean up waste at the sites.

Steve Fluke, the program manager, said a statewide inventory found approximately 17,000 mine openings in Utah. Officials focus on those located on state and federal lands as well as private property – with permission from the owners. Once an entryway is discovered, officials perform various geological and environmental studies to survey the area before determining how to seal it off. Around 200 to 300 openings are closed each year.

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Coal mines were a high priority for the program when it first started, which led officials to work on several locations in Coalville in the 1990s. More recently, silver and lead mining reclamation has been a new area of focus. 

Fluke said some landowners didn’t want the mines closed for various reasons but estimated they closed around 400 openings. There is no cost associated with the work, but the property owner maintains liability.

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“We go out and look and find the openings, the physical safety hazards, and we went around and closed them but a lot of them were left open,” he said. “We decided to go back and ask the landowners if they want them closed now that it’s 30 years later.”

The upcoming phase of the project includes two sites in Summit County and one in Wasatch County. With the number of openings across the state, officials prioritize mining districts like the Wasatch Front because of the proximity to recreationists.

Construction for this stage is scheduled to begin in August. The openings in Summit and Wasatch counties are generally located in the White Pine Canyon and Bonanza Flat areas. David Jones, a project manager, said one of the mines is 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide with a small trench cut into the hillside that leads to the opening. Officials plan to use a trackhoe to backfill the site with waste rock, which is material cast out during the original mining process. The other two openings are vertical shafts with trickier access that will be sealed with rock or foam. The Wasatch County project is in phase one, and more work will be done in the next year or two.

“We’ve had a lot of difficulties getting off the ground because the construction season is so short and we’re trying to accommodate the bats, there are fire restrictions potentially,” Fluke said. “We’re doing it in phases to keep it in manageable chunks.”

However, it’s rare for officials to work in the Park City area.

“There’s something unique about Summit County in that United Park City Mines has never really wanted – they own a lot of the shafts there – us to do an inventory of their work or properties. So generally, even though we’ve done most of the Wasatch, we actually haven’t done that much around Park City,” Fluke said.

Officials have worked on a handful of projects when permitted by the property owner. The Park City Council also adopted an ordinance in 2011 that requires large property owners to “abate or close” mine hazards. The city can opt to seal the tunnel or shaft and charge for the cost of the work if the owner fails to take action.

When the construction season ends, reclamation program staff turn their attention to outreach. There are fewer fatal accidents each year as the public becomes aware of the dangers of abandoned mines, but officials say more work is still needed.

“There’s at least one kind of report each year,” Fluke said. “We like to think that people aren’t dying so much these days because we’ve closed a lot of them. There are hidden hazards.”