This special copy version of our map shows the locations of metal mine workings and coal mines throughout Wales.

The mining of various metals in Wales was important since prehistoric times. Metal mine workings have now been generally abandoned, largely forgotten and absorbed into the landscape. They are historically very interesting but also the source of serious problems.

Welsh coal mining was a huge factor in the Industrial Revolution and continued until relatively recently. The resulting impacts on the land and people of these areas are well known. The extraction of metals and coal created vast wealth for owners and governments, yet left behind some of the poorest, most deprived parts of the UK.

The toxic spoil from old workings produces contaminants that cause pollution of water courses. This may be especially significant if the spoil layers are further disturbed. Heavily mined land may suffer from serious ground instability and not all historic underground workings are known and documented. These are important aspects that may need to be considered in the planning of major infrastructure proposals such as renewable energy.

The mine locations shown are not exhaustive. Only known mine sites are indicated, waste tips are not mapped. Display of coal mines can be selected from the map layer menu and for convienience are divided into those closed by 1900 and sites in active operation after that date.

Information is derived from multiple, freely available sources. Contains data from Natural Resources Wales downloaded via DataMapWales, which is public sector information and licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

CAUTION - includes large data volumes and the page may be slow to load! Please be patient.

About this map:

Information is shared from our main map. Representation is best effort and based on available information. Area boundaries for wind farms are simplified or approximated only and are not in any way definitive. They are also likely to change in future.

Wind farm circle markers indicate locations where not much else is known. Speculative wind farms, shown in pink, are known from minimal information, often by company name only and located with reasonable probability derived from that name (optional display in the layer menu).

The base map can be changed between Open Street Map, Open Topographical Map or Satellite - select from the layers menu at the top-right corner.

Information presented on this map is not guaranteed as acurate, but the features are intended to give a reasonably good idea of location. With that in mind, any part of the map may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes. This map is produced by Deeproot Software using the open source Leaflet JS library.