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Description: The
Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines (NSDEM) has identified
approximately 8,400 shafts, adits, slopes, open cuts, trenches and associated
underground workings (Information
Circular ME 42) which are, or were at one time, open to
the surface. These mine openings are spread over almost 700 mining areas;
however, the database is not, and should not be considered, a complete record
of abandoned mine openings in the Province. Additional abandoned mine openings
exist which have not been documented. As well, the database does not include
surface expressions of subsidence resulting from the collapse of underground
mine workings.
The inventory does not include
quarries, sand pits, open pit mines, naturally occurring caverns or subsidence
features related to karst topography.
NSDEM regularly updates the
database whenever sites are visited or whenever previously undocumented mine
openings are identified. In 2018 LIDAR coverage of the Eastern shore, portions
of the South shore and much of Industrial Cape Breton was released by the
Geographic Information Services Section of Service Nova Scotia and Internal
Services. Soon after, NSDEM undertook the initiative to evaluate the coverage
areas for both known and undocumented abandoned mine openings. It was found
that interpretation of LIDAR imagery could be used to locate historical mine
openings, not previously mapped, and to confirm or adjust the locations of
known AMO’s. As a result, more than 800 mine openings have been added to
the database and an additional 400 or so have had their location revised based
upon the available information.
As well, the following points
should be noted:
The majority of
the abandoned mine openings on Crown Land have either been surveyed by GPS
or positioned utilizing LIDAR imagery
The locations of
most of the identified abandoned mine openings on Private land have not
been surveyed and therefore their locations in the database are provided
at a lower level of confidence
Not all mine
openings have been examined by a physical inspection of the opening during
a visit to the site
Since the
information was compiled, new openings may have developed due to the
deterioration of underlying abandoned mine workings
Conditions of
sites which have been examined may change since they were last assessed.
The degree of hazard indicated in the database should be used as a guide
only
Undocumented abandoned mine
openings resulting from small scale illegal mining, particularly related to
coal, are added to the inventory when reported to, or identified by NSDEM staff
during site visits. In some cases, a number of mine openings are located in
very small areas and are associated with subsidence features similar to mine
openings. In many of these cases, each individual mine opening may not be
uniquely identified in the inventory, and a group of mine openings are
represented by a single mine opening data point. Users of the database with an
interest in these areas are encouraged to contact NSDEM for more detailed
information.
Information related to historic
mining was obtained from the following sources:
Annual Reports of
the Nova Scotia Department of Mines
Geological Survey
or Canada (GSC) Faribault-Fletcher series of Geological Maps
GSC Summary and
Annual Reports, Papers and Memoirs
Nova Scotia
Department of Natural Resources (NSDNR) Mineral Occurrence Cards
NSDNR Assessment
Reports
NSDNR Open File
Maps and Reports
NSDNR Papers and
Bulletins
Nova Scotia
Department of Service Nova Scotia and Internal Services, Geographic
Information Services, LIDAR Imagery
General Public
Geotechnical
Consultants
The Abandoned Mine Openings
Database can be searched by the mine opening name, location, claim reference
map, landowner, commodity sought, county, mine opening type, name of vein or
seam, hazard degree and mine opening original depth. Additional information
such as mine opening identification number, tract, claim, date last visited,
inclination, protection and UTM NAD83 coordinates is available through the
generation of individual reports.
The coordinates used in the database are in Universal Transverse
Mercator (UTM) Projection, Zone 20, North American Datum (NAD) 1983.
Service Item Id: 698364fb147246ef9216851a48630f0a
Copyright Text: Nova Scotia Department of Energy and Mines
Spatial Reference:
2038
(2961)
Initial Extent:
XMin: -97365.03108149569
YMin: 4661688.810523259
XMax: 1076589.0313256364
YMax: 5403089.189720881
Spatial Reference: 2038
(2961)
Full Extent:
XMin: 232176.00006103516
YMin: 4856100
XMax: 747048.0000610352
YMax: 5208677.999938965
Spatial Reference: 2038
(2961)
Units: esriMeters
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