DNR Closes Up Hazardous Mining Shafts

It’s back to the old mining heave ho… but this time workers are dumping it all back in instead of digging it all out. The state is eliminating falling hazards in the Joplin area by plugging up old, abandoned mines. The federal government reauthorized the Department of Natural Resources to reclaim its mines after the state was cut from federal funding for two years. Land Reclamation specialist Mike Miller says the DNR is focusing on two shafts right now in Jasper and Newton counties. He says the state closes the mines by pouring concrete over a foam plug and topping them off with earth. D-N-R says the state now gets about 800-thousand dollars a year to reclaim mines through the Federal Abandoned Mine Land Fund.