February 20, 2026
Comment section strikes gold
Show HN: Mines.fyi – all the mines in the US in a leaflet visualization
6,608 US mines mapped — data gold rush, missing sites, and punchline puns
TLDR: A new site maps 6,608 US mines using weekly data from the federal mine safety agency. Commenters loved the clarity, then argued over accuracy and definitions—flagging missing sites, calling out non‑mining facilities, and asking about safety risks—turning a simple map into a lively data‑credibility brawl.
Show HN: a clean little map of 6,608 US mines appears… and the comments immediately start digging. The site breaks things down simply—most are surface sites, with stone and sand & gravel dominating, Texas leading the pack, and big names like Vulcan and Martin Marietta topping operators. One helpful soul drops the source: weekly data from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) via msha.gov, keeping the map fresh.
But the plot thickens. A jokester breathes relief they’re not those mines—cue a chorus of “phew, not landmines or crypto.” Meanwhile, safety hawks crash the party asking about asbestos risk, name‑checking the infamous Libby, Montana disaster and wondering if the map flags hazards at all. Then comes the accuracy drama: a sharp‑eyed commenter claims a major miss—the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) near Carlsbad, NM—saying it’s an underground salt site regulated by MSHA and should be there. Cue the definitional debate: others argue the map includes cement works and processing plants that don’t actually dig on‑site. So what even counts as a “mine,” folks?
The vibe: data nerds vs. industry sticklers vs. public‑health worriers, with punsters chipping in from the sidelines. It’s a simple map turned community quarry, with users demanding tighter definitions, better completeness, and maybe a hazard layer—to keep the jokes light and the data rock‑solid.
Key Points
- •Mines.fyi visualizes 6,608 active U.S. mines on an interactive map built with Leaflet, using OpenStreetMap and CARTO basemaps.
- •Breakdown by mine type: 5,779 surface, 496 facilities, 330 underground, 3 unknown.
- •Breakdown by commodity group: Stone (2,874), Sand and Gravel (2,320), Nonmetal (626), Coal (615), Metal (170).
- •Coal vs metal/non-metal counts: 615 coal mines vs 5,993 metal/non-metal mines.
- •Top operators and workforce counts are listed, led by Vulcan Construction Materials (173 mines) and including Nevada Gold Mines (20 mines, 7,016 employees); example mine records include sites in WV and WY.