Education and action on inactive mines

There are over 23,000 abandoned, potentially polluting, mine sites throughout Colorado, where the mountains serve as valuable headwaters for the country’s major waterways. The State of Nevada has even more abandoned mine lands (AMLs) with potential human health and ecological concerns. AMLs are a concern throughout the western United States, and there’s a critical need for trained professionals to fill mine reclamation careers and remediate these sites.

The Western Alliance for Reclamation Management (WARM) educates and prepares the next generation of professionals for reclamation careers in the mineral industries in the US West. WARM students hone valuable job skills in projects at mine sites across the West while building collaborative partnerships that will serve them throughout their careers.

To this end, WARM partners with Western Colorado University, Fort Lewis College, Colorado Mesa University, Colorado State University, and the Colorado School of Mines and multi-national firms such as Stantec, Brown & Caldwell, and Peschard Sverdrup International. To ensure the highest standards WARM’s Board of Directors and Advisory Boards are made up of representatives from universities, mining and mine reclamation companies, consulting firms, NGOs, state level staff and independent contractors.