1. WV Office of Miners Health, Safety, and Training
Mission
To facilitate and continually improve industry and
citizen safety in and around active and abandoned
mines in West Virginia.
Armed with a laptop computer containing .tif images of +/- 47,000 maps of abandoned West Virginia mines, along with a queriable indexed database, private mine map collections across the state are being searched to recover, process, and permanently archive previously undocumented abandoned underground mines. Assisted by a recently-secured grant from MSHA for performing this work, recovery efforts are being accelerated this summer with the addition of 5-7 temporary personnel and the addition of new mapping hardware and software.
An Atlas of the Mines and Related Facilities in West Virginia has been completed using Delorme XMAP, which provides an affordable, easy to use, and GPS navigable mapping system to assist in information management and geospacial analysis relating to active and abandoned mines.

2. WV Office of Miners Health, Safety, and Training
Current Projects
WV Mines and Facilities Location Atlas
Recovery, processing, and permanent archiving of
previously undocumented abandoned underground
mines
Armed with a laptop computer containing .tif images of +/- 47,000 maps of abandoned West Virginia mines, along with a queriable indexed database, private mine map collections across the state are being searched to recover, process, and permanently archive previously undocumented abandoned underground mines. Assisted by a recently-secured grant from MSHA for performing this work, recovery efforts are being accelerated this summer with the addition of 5-7 temporary personnel and the addition of new mapping hardware and software.
An Atlas of the Mines and Related Facilities in West Virginia has been completed using Delorme XMAP, which provides an affordable, easy to use, and GPS navigable mapping system to assist in information management and geospacial analysis relating to active and abandoned mines.

3. The statewide Mines and Facilities Atlas of West Virginia in printed version corresponds to 24- D-size sheets at a scale of 1 inch equals 2 miles.

4. These maps carry USGS contours, updated planimetrics, and locations for all active deep mines, surface mines, preparation plants, loadouts, impoundments, and quarries in West Virginia.

5. On computer these maps are scalable, routable, and GPS navigable
On computer these maps are scalable, routable, and GPS navigable. Switching between lat/long, state plane, UTM, and other coordinate conversions is simplified.

6. Integration with other agency data is important
Integration with other agency data is important. These maps can utilize GIS information compiled from other agencies, including this .shp file of the Coalburg Seam Reserve Areas compiled by the WV Geologic and Economic Survey.

7. Example Application:
An underground mine inspector wants to verify that gas wells are properly plugged ahead of mining.
(press space bar to start GPS animation)
By importing .dwg AutoCAD drawings as .shp files detailed mine maps can be layered with surface topo mapping and these maps can be easily transferred to a GPS-equipped Pocket PC and used for surface reconnaisance.
The real-time variation in accuracy of this system is only about +/- 90-ft., but using this system’s Post-processing capabilities the collected GPS data can be corrected later in the office to sub-meter accuracy, if desired.

8. Geospacial Goals for Coming Year
Accelerate collection, processing, and archiving of old mine maps not currently in the Mine Map Repository
Acquire additional hardware and software to facilitate GIS, engineering, and data management capabilities
Develop secure procedures for locking digital mine maps to allow use of industry maps while preventing misuse through alteration or data piracy
This is being done with the hiring of 6-7 temporary personnel this summer
New computer desktop and laptop systems have been ordered.
Currently looking for a quick and effective “fingerprint” application that can look at a scanned .tif image and compare it to the existing images in our database.
3) Need an effective CAD lock solution