Directory of Mines and Quarries
The British Geological Survey has been collecting locational and other information about operating mineral workings in the United Kingdom since its formation in 1835 and the current publication summarising this data is the Directory of Mines and Quarries (DMQ), Eleventh Edition 2020. The DMQ is derived from data held in the BRITPITS database, see below.
This edition of the DMQ contains information on operational mineral sites in the UK during the period 2019 - 2020. Details of minerals produced or handled, geological formations worked, location and operator contact information are provided. These can be used for many purposes and are listed in a convenient form, firstly by Commodity (e.g. Natural Gas, Sandstone and Limestone), then by Mineral Planning Authority, and thirdly by Operator (where known).
The Directory of Mines and Quarries 2020 is available directly from BGS as a free pdf download. If you would like a printed copy this can be arranged for postage please contact purchased from our sales desk.
BRITPITS
The DMQ is derived from the BRITPITS database which holds information on both active and ceased mineral workings, their geographic location, address, Mineral Planning Authority, Operator, site geology, mineral commodities produced and their subsequent end-uses. The data are held in a relational database using an Oracle server and interfaced with using a Microsoft Access front-end. There are currently over 230,000 records in the database and this number continues to rise in response to an on-going systematic survey of former mineral sites in the UK.
Data are gathered from a number of sources: BGS's own extensive records, Mineral Planning Authorities (MPAs), the minerals industry and various central Government Departments and Agencies (MHCLG, The Coal Authority etc.). BGS believes that, as such, BRITPITS is one of – if not – the most comprehensive and up-to-date information sources on mineral workings in the UK now available. The data can be used for many purposes (for example generating mailing lists, route-planning, market intelligence/analysis and resource planning) and is currently supplied to a wide range of customers.
The BGS can supply data on active mineral workings either as the printed Directory of Mines and Quarries or as digital database extracts. We typically supply the data in GIS-compatible formats including ESRI shapefiles and MapInfo TAB, however, it can also be made available in Excel Spreadsheets. These are available to licence from BGS; https://www.bgs.ac.uk/datasets/britpits/, together with data pertaining to ceased workings. An indication of the data coverage region-by-region is provided below.
A digital index of the locations of all currently active mineral workings can be viewed on the BGS website using the Onshore GeoIndex (accessed through the Our data section).
| Region | Description |
|---|---|
| CHA | Channel Islands (NB Grid Co-ordinates are UTM)** |
| EEN | East England |
| EMD | East Midlands (England) |
| IOM | Isle Of Man* |
| LON | Greater London |
| NEA | North East England |
| NIR | Northern Ireland |
| NWE | North West England |
| NSCT | North Scotland |
| CSCT | Central Scotland |
| SSCT | South Scotland |
| SEA | South East England |
| SWE | South West England |
| NWLS | North Wales |
| SWLS | South Wales |
| WMD | West Midlands (England) |
| YHU | Yorkshire and Humberside (England) |
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