Three primary areas of interest are covered by this map service, Central Kentucky Mineral District (CKMD), Western Kentucky Fluorspar District (WKFD), and South-Central Mineral District (SKMD). These are recognized regions of established ore deposits that had been explored or mined for over 100 years for fluorspar, zinc, or barite from mapped mineral vein deposits and associated ore bodies. Included are several areas of iron ore mining activity and regions of historic phosphate mining.

The data in this service is complex and covers documents derived from numerous mining companies active in the districts. As such, the quality of the data varies from basic field or mine notes, to formal reports and maps. Many mine names have changed and may be known as an alias. Different companies may have reworked the same mine creating multiple or different mine names for the same locality. In these cases, the alias name was included and placed in parentheses. The most dominant mine name was chosen as the best criteria in the WKFD in order to resolve some of these database and organizational issues, since there are primarily three counties in the district and hundreds of mines and prospects. In the CKMD, data are organized by county name; and when some data are selected, all available information for that county may be presented to the user. The SKMD is organized by counties and contains numerous cores that are considered significant. No actual mining took place in the Kentucky portion of this district and only one exploration shaft was constructed, the Cominco American shaft in Cumberland County.

Drill hole logs are problematic since there have been thousands of cores drilled throughout the mining districts and individual location maps were sometimes not available nor referenced from a known standard coordinate system. For instance, many Alcoa logs and maps were provided and available for download, but the coordinates are plotted from an Alcoa reference point. The supporting base maps are thus generally located by their polygonal footprint, whereas their individual drill hole locations are not.

From a vast collection of approximately 20,000 scanned images of multipage reports, field notes, maps, core logs, cross sections, etc., a minerals document database of over 3700 PDFs were compiled and then finally linked to a geospatial feature class of mineral location data. There may be additional tabular and descriptive core data available through the Core and Sample Holdings database search engine or its associated map service at the KGS Website. Geochemical and geophysical data are available for some mine areas, as well as some limestone quarries which are included when important.

These data are a digital compilation of spatially referenced point locations for all mapped mines, shafts, dikes, prospects, outcrops, core holes, and drill holes associated with the mineral ore industry of Kentucky. Also included are linear features of mineral veins and igneous dikes, as well as their respective areal extents. Much of these data, especially in the WKFD, were secured from maps, drill hole logs, field notes, and interpretations that were donated to the KGS, as well as from locations posted on topographic base maps. Most of the remaining data were captured and cataloged during digital map conversion of the scanned geologic quadrangle maps. Consistent data attribution for the various features was finalized utilizing GIS software, links to scanned documents (maps, reports, core logs, sections) were completed, and the compiled feature data was then posted to the map service.

How to use this map service: This website has three frames.

• The left-hand frame is organized into four panes for 1) visualizing the legends, 2) selecting the layers to display, 3) querying the mineral feature's name, commodity, mineral, or location and 4) printing the map view.
• The central frame contains a scalable map to view the geographic location and extent of mineral ore deposits and the data used to characterize them. Included within the frame are tools to zoom in, zoom out, pan, return to full extent, and change background base map.
• The bottom frame returns scanned document information (if available) of selected or queried results with attached links to downloadable PDFs. These documents may range from detailed publications, maps, or cross sections to in-house company reports, field notes, work maps, drill hole logs, and lab analyses.

Shortcuts and hints:

• Zoom in to an area of interest. Labels for features will turn on and become visible as one zooms in closer. Legends for point features will update from generic blue symbology to more site-specific symbology as zoom level increases.
• Click on a map feature to see if any document information is available. A second click on the same feature within the map frame will return a pop-up of additional attribute data (i.e., Ore ID, site name, commodity, deposit type, district, county, etc.).
• Information available for any selected feature will be returned into the bottom frame as a viewable or downloadable PDF. Click on the Name column to zoom in and center the map view.
• Layers in the left-hand frame can be turned on or off as needed. Transparency can be adjusted for Geologic Faults and Original GQ Map Image layers.
• In the query pane labeled "Find Mineral Features", a more general search term (iron, lead, prospect, mine) may return many more results than needed. Selected features will be highlighted in bright red. Sort through the list of returned names and documents in the bottom window and click on one to zoom in further.
• Proper names, if used, can be searched in the site name field (i.e., Klondike, Hutson, Old Jim, Robinson, Memphis, Burkesville, Twin Chimney, Rose Run, etc.) If an item is not found under one mine name search on adjacent mines or on regional maps.
• Only Mineral Points, Mineral Linear Features, and Mineral Areas are selectable. The Mineral Districts layer is only provided for general map label purposes and features are not selectable.

As more spatial data and/or associated documents are added to the minerals database, this map service will be updated as needed. Links to documents will be refined to be more site-specific. Some links currently return more documents than are currently necessary. Summary reports, reserve studies, and regional maps are also available, but may not be easily found on the map server at this time. These information should be available in future releases.

This compilation was performed by staff at the Kentucky Geological Survey with assistance in document scanning by students of the University of Kentucky from the period 2000-2013. Funding was supported, in part, by various grants from the U.S. Geological Survey. Acknowledgment is made to Richard Smath, who supervised over 50 students for scanning documents during the time period, Tom Sparks, for initial database organization and integration, and Doug Curl, for the database and internet map server implementation.

Special acknowledgement is also extended to the many people who donated information or allowed us to use their data for public use. These individuals were or are still active in the mining industry and include Mr. William R. Frazer, Marion, Ky; Robert D. Trace, Brownsville, TX; Boyce Moodie III, Smithland, Ky; Del Harper and Fred Smith, Tennessee, and the countless other geologists and mining engineers who contributed vital information and documentation on the early mining activity in the district. Many of them wrote publications and contributed to earlier War Minerals and U.S. Bureau of Mines Reports.