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Coalbed Methane Outreach Program

Map of US Coal Mine Methane Current Projects and Potential Opportunities

This map and accompanying matrix provide information about current projects and potential opportunities to develop coal mine methane (CMM) recovery and utilization projects at active U.S. coal mines. Mine data reported in both the map and the accompanying Coal Mine Methane Recovery at Active and Abandoned U.S. Coal Mines: Current Projects and Potential Opportunities (July 2020) matrix was updated in July 2020 to reflect the 2018 production year.*  

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) designed the profiles to help project developers perform an initial screening of potential projects. A detailed evaluation would need to be done on a site-specific basis to determine whether the development of a specific methane recovery and use project is both technically and economically feasible. 

*NOTE: CMOP gathers data from publicly-available sources to provide this industry resource. Additional verification or validation has not been performed by the CMOP program.

 
 
  Surface Mine Underground Mine Underground Non-Producing Mine Abandoned Mine
No drainage
No gas recovery
surface mine no drainage no gas recovery map symbol. underground mine no drainage no gas recovery map symbol. open blue diamond abandoned mine no drainage no gas recovery map symbol.
With drainage
No gas recovery
surface mine with drainage no gas recovery map symbol. underground mine with drainage no gas recovery map symbol. open red diamond abandoned mine with drainage no gas recovery map symbol.
With drainage
With gas recovery
surface mine with drainage with gas recovery map symbol. underground mine with drainage with gas recovery map symbol. open green diamond abandoned mine with drainage with gas recovery map symbol.

Instructions

Click on any of the map markers to view detailed information on that mine. Some mines are mapped closely, so please utilize the map zooming functionality to better view any clusters.

Zooming: You can click on the "+"/"-" buttons on the upper left corner to zoom map in/out. Quickly return to the map's default start extent using the Home button.

Repositioning the map: Simply click on the map and drag in any direction.

Changing map display: To change the type of map displayed to satellite view, click on the "Imagery" button in the lower left corner. Click the box again to toggle back to the default topographic map.

Definitions

Surface mine: Surface coal mines are mines that remove part or all of mountaintops to expose buried seams of coal. For more information, see Active Surface Mines.

Underground mine: Underground coal mines are mines at which coal is produced by tunneling into the earth to the coalbed, which is then mined with underground mining equipment and transported to the surface. For more information, see Active Underground Mines.

Non-producing mine: Non-producing coal mines are active mines that are temporarily not producing coal, but not yet considered abandoned per the Mine Safety & Health Administration.

Abandoned mine: Abandoned coal mines are no longer operated to produce coal. For more information, see Abandoned Underground Mines.

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