Mine Waste Volume Estimation Tools

This toolbox was developed for use on mine waste sites in the state of Alaska. Many of these are placer mining sites, with small waste piles spread along a stream bed. The tool to calculate mine waste volume lets the user select between two different methods: surface difference and height estimation. The surface difference method was designed to estimate the volume of the stream bed surface tailings. The height estimation method was developed for use with the USGS National Mine Waste Inventory in the conterminous U.S. and functions best on larger, single mine waste features. Both these methods store the
calculated volume in the attribute table of the polygon feature class that contains outlines of mine waste. The toolbox
also contains a tool to extract outlines of waste ponds and piles within polygons of mine waste.