History Main / AbandonedMine

->''“The vast mines of Donkey Kong Country have been stripped of any ore they may have once contained. All the tools of the miners remain, however, from mine carts to rickety scaffolding. There are special barrels that turn the lights on and off, and risky mine elevators full of slag.”''

->“The vast mines of Donkey Kong Country have been stripped of any ore they may have once contained. All the tools of the miners remain, however, from mine carts to rickety scaffolding. There are special barrels that turn the lights on and off, and risky mine elevators full of slag.”

* ''Literature/TheBobbseyTwins'': In ''The Bobbsey Twins in the Mystery Cave,'' they discover an abandoned mine, which they propose to renovate as a tourist attraction. They also find that it is directly adjacent to a cave, with an underground lake that is connected via an underground river to a local above-ground lake. They also find some unauthorized persons attempting to work the mine.

* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', the four find a map of Boidan Mine. When George expresses skepticism that they would want to waste time going to a mine, he's told that those old mines are full of adventure and treasure. This one in particular must have something interesting because it takes a rare and expensive jump gem to get there. Ultimately the four do go there, but they never make it into the mine because they discover that another party of adventurers has beaten them there. They simply wait for the adventurers to emerge with their spoils and HilarityEnsues.

* ''Webcomic/{{Unsounded}}'': The Uneasy Mines have long been functionally abandoned due to the Foi-Hellicks being executed and the locals of Avelpit being embroiled in a decade long civil war against greater Alderode. The mines end up the eerie backdrop for a large part of Duane's story about fighting in the Foi-Hellick Affair since his regiment fell into them during an ambush and were there captured by Avelpit rebels.

* The city of Xenotime in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' has gold mines long emptied and are since used by the Tringham brothers to try to make a PhilosophersStone, funded by Mugear, who want to remake the city wealthy again.

Watch out for [[InvoluntaryGroupSplit falling rocks and other obstacles]]. The lost characters may be able to find [[AWayOutOfACaveIn an escape tunnel or exit]]. A few abandoned mines are a disguised entrance to an ElaborateUndergroundBase.

Watch out for [[InvoluntaryGroupSplit falling rocks and other obstacles]]. The lost characters may be able to find [[AWayOutOfACaveIn an escape tunnel or exit]].

A SubTrope of AbandonedArea. In video games, this may serve as an UndergroundLevel.

Watch out for [[InvoluntaryGroupSplit falling rocks and other obstacles]]. The lost characters may be able to find [[AWayOutOfACaveIn
find an escape tunnel or exit]].

Watch out for [[InvoluntaryGroupSplit falling rocks and other obstacles]]. The lost characters may be able to [[FollowAWayOutOfACaveIn
find an escape tunnel or vent]].

Watch out for [[InvoluntaryGroupSplit falling rocks and other obstacles]]. The lost characters may be able to [[FollowAWayOutOfACaveIn find an escape tunnel or vent]].

It may or may not be specified what was mined there in the first place, or [[MinecartMadness mine cart rides]].

Watch out for [[InvoluntaryGroupSplit falling rocks and other obstacles]].

* ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'' An abandoned mine near Summerville, Oklahoma turns out to have been once owned by Ivo Shandor and turns out to be the place where he and his cult of Gozer worshipers had mined the pure selenium used in the construction of Spook Central, and where Shandor was entombed after his death.

Maybe there's nothing left to mine. Maybe it was closed because of safety issues. Maybe the company that owned it went bankrupt. Maybe something terrible happened there. Maybe the miners DugTooDeep. Whatever the reason, this mine is now abandoned, and has probably been that way for some time. That does not, however, mean that it is empty. An abandoned mine is the perfect place for young characters to get lost or trapped, for heroes to find a valuable clue or some sort of treasure, or for villains, outlaws, and horror movie monsters to lurk.

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGalaxySuperExpress'' has the gang, aboard the titular express, crashing on an empty mining planet after their fuel was sabotaged. There's an abandoned mine shaft nearby containing a second express, which is still functioning thanks to RagnarokProofing -- the heroes obtains it to make an escape afterwards.
* The city of Xenotime in ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist'' has gold mines long emptied and who are since used by the Tringham brothers to try to make a PhilosophersStone, funded by Mugear, who want to remake the city wealthy again.

* Jebediah's gold mine in ''Fanfic/OliviaGoesWest'', a crossover between ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' and ''WesternAnimation/AnAmericanTail''. It serves as one of the main bases of operations for the bad guys, and is also one of the few elements borrowed from ''Fievel's American Tails'' series (see below in the Western Animation section). [[spoiler:The last showdown also happens there, in [[RollercoasterMine a minecart moving down the mineshaft]], no less.]]
* In ''Fanfic/TheKeysStandAlone: The Soft World'', the four find a map of Boidan Mine. When George expresses skepticism that they would want to waste time going to a mine, he's told that that old mines are full of adventure and treasure. This one in particular must have something interesting because it takes a rare and expensive jump gem to get there. Ultimately the four do go there, but they never make it into the mine because they discover that another party of adventurers has beaten them there. They simply wait for the adventurers to emerge with their spoils and HilarityEnsues.

* In ''Film/DemonKnight'', the occupants of the hotel discover an old mine shaft that abuts the wall of the basement. Despite Brayker's exhortations not to, they break through the wall and attempt to escape through the mine. However, they discover the demons are already in the mine, and are attacked and forced to retreat back to the hotel.

* ''Film/TheEvilThatMenDo''. Creator/CharlesBronson plays a hitman sent to kill a TortureTechnician whom he lures out by kidnapping his sister, ostensibly for ransom. He sets up the ransom exchange in an abandoned opal mine, only to find when he gets there that it's full of poor peasants chipping away at the workings in the hope of finding leftover opals. [[spoiler:The peasants end up doing his job for him, because they're all former victims of the torturer.]]

* ''Film/GhostbustersAfterlife'' An abandoned mine near Summerville, Oklahoma turns out to have been once owned by Ivo Shandor, and turns out to be the place where he and his cult of Gozer worshipers had mined the pure selenium used in the construction of Spook Central, and where Shandor was entombed after his death.

* In ''Literature/TheMinesOfFalun'' it is more like a Haunted Mine, but do to certain quakes it does become abandoned from time to time.

* ''Series/{{Raven}}'' has two different challenges set in abandoned mines (both were actually filmed in the same real life location): Spider Tunnel and Dwarf Mine. In the latter challenge, the mine's ceiling will collapse onto the contestants if they fail to get out in time or remove three false pit props.
* ''Series/SkippyTheBushKangaroo'' CatchPhrase: "What's that Skippy? The kids are trapped down the old mine-shaft, '''again'''?"

* The ''Encounter Critical'' adventure ''Asteroid 1618'' has an abandoned mine as an playable area. Encounters include Hellbats, a Cave Ooze, a Slime Dragon, Hooded Horrors and Time Ghosts.

* ''VideoGame/BetrayalAtKrondor'' features the The Mac Mordain Cadal, although the dwarves are trying to change that mine's status.
* The Dauna Mine in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'' is visited twice during the game, once at the beginning when it was in full use, and a second time after the ten year TimeSkip, when it is abandoned due to a rampaging dragon. [[spoiler:It's a twist though, said dragon is the PlayerCharacter.]]

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'', there are a number of them throughout Vvardenfell. Many kwama egg mines had to be abandoned when the resident kwama colony became blighted and turned hostile. There are also some ebony and glass mines that had to be abandoned for various reasons. One in particular, the Vassir-Didanat ebony mine, was not only abandoned but it's location was lost. You can find it and report its location to one of three Hlaalu councilors, each of whom will give you a different reward. There are also a number of still-operational mines, averting the trope in those cases.

** The Commonwealth of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' has several mines whose exploitation stopped because of the War or subsequant conflicts. The Thicket Excavations has become a Raider base while theDunwich Borers seems to be inhabited by an abominationc reated by the former owners' dark rituals.

** The Possessed Mine Shaft near Kholen was abandoned after several miners wind up dead in mysterious circumstances. The party ends up running into the responsible of the massacre while exploring the mine.

* ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiPaperJam'' has the not-so-abandoned dungeon beneath the [[PalmtreePanic Twinsy Tropics]], where a mining operation leaded by Wendy and Roy using enslaved Toads is taking place.
* Many, many side-missions in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' will take place in these -- from recovering missing Alliance intelligence to killing husks of a mining team that DugTooDeep. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has just one mission in a abandoned mine that is also fighting the remnants of miners who DugTooDeep. ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' keeps it going, with Drack's LoyaltyMission being set in one used by criminals as a hideout.

** The player also creates mines which may subsequently be abandoned.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterEye'' have an abandoned mine shaft near the waterfall stage, full of giant insects and a pair of JapaneseBeetleBrothers as a DualBoss. The player have to take cover inside after being attacked by a giant rhino beetle, only to run afoul of a giant stag beetle inside the shaft which the players must escape from. Once they're outside, they fight the rhino and stag beetle at the same time.

* One of the episodes in ''VideoGame/{{Prismata}}'' takes place in an abadoned Gaussite mine.

* All over the place in ''Franchise/ResidentEvil''. If the mine wasn't abandoned because someone DugTooDeep (either intentionally or accidentally), or because someone thought a mine would be a brilliant place to build a secret monster creating laboratory, it was abandoned because it happened to be in the vicinity of a zombie outbreak.

* The initial levels of ''VideoGame/{{Spelunky}}'' are set in one of these. Of course, "abandoned" doesn't include the cavemen, shopkeepers, kidnapped damsels..

* An optional area hidden in Mt. Metox in ''VideoGame/StarOcean1'' is an abandoned mine filled with super-tough enemies and high value loot.

** In "Missing Gator", the Troublesome Trucks run away from Percy because they aren't coupled up to him. They smash through [[CallBack the same boarded-up mine that Stephen was previously in]], and in an OutOfCharacter moment, they ask Percy to help them out of the mine, as [[OOCIsSeriousBusiness they don't like being left there alone]].
* ''WesternAnimation/ThunderbirdsAreGo'': In "Crosscut", Thunderbird 5 picks up an unusual radiation spike from a remote corner of Africa, and John discovers a former uranium mine has reopened, leading to Scott rushing there in Thunderbird 1 to investigate, with Virgil following. When Scott arrives and enters the mine, he discovers a source of unstable uranium, and is attacked by a mysterious woman, who claims that the mine belongs to her family. During their confrontation the mine soon begins to crumble, and she and Scott must work together to escape and reseal the mine, before a storm spreads the leaking radiation to the nearest city with serious consequences.

* Abandoned mines are all over the place in real life, often in remote or unexpected areas, but rarely completely abandoned because that's sorta frowned on by environmental agencies these days. Despite this, people in charge of remediating the damage done by the mining process will usually not be there on any particular given day. Needless to say, they are dangerous places. Not that this stops anyone from exploring them just to show how brave they are, of course..

* Some mines are only temporarkily "abandoned" and subsequently get repurposed for other uses.
** Beneath the Canadian city of Sudbury, ON is a disused nickel-mine which is now the site of SNOLAB (Sudbury Neutrino Observatory [=LABoratory=])

* The tiny island of Hashima (nicknamed Gunkanjima or "Battleship Island" due to its resemblance of the Japanese battleship ''Tosa'' from the distance) is basically a minehead of the enormous undersea coal works that belonged to Mitsubishi. While the CompanyTown that occupies the whole top of the island is a very popular attraction among the urban explorers, the mine itself probably hasn't been visited since it closed in the 1974 due to falling coal prices.

* The mines at Wittenoom, Western Australia were closed and abandoned in 1966, and the surrounding town declared off-limits. The town itself was was degazetted and removed from maps in 2007. Huge warning signs surround the area. The reason? They mined blue asbestos (which is even more dangerous than normal asbestos).

* ''Series/{{Raven}}'' has two different challenges set in abandoned mines (both were actually filmed in the same real life location): Spider Tunnel and Dwarf Mine. In the latter challenge, the mine's ceiling will collapse onto the contestants if they fail to complete it in time or remove three false pit props.

** ''VideoGame/Fallout2'' has the Wanamingo Mine in Redding, which was abandoned after a pack of monsters moved in. The player can buy the mine and clear it out to resell it at a profit.

* There is some sort of incarnation of the Abandoned Mine in every ''Half-Life'' game to date:
** Some of the older and more dilapidated parts of [[ElaborateUndergroundBase the Black Mesa complex]] have this aesthetic even if they're not literal examples, being built on top of a decommissioned missile silo that dates back to TheFifties. Some areas you pass through look like they're either natural caves or literal mineshafts that have been repurposed.
** In ''VideoGame/HalfLife2: Episode 2'', both the rebel outpost and the antlion nest are in an abandoned mine.
** The short route from Ravenholm back to the surface in VideoGame/HalfLife2 also counts.

* ''VideoGame/TheLongDark'' features a few mines that were abandoned many years before when the game takes place due to seismic activity. In Campaign mode, the player has to contend with falling rocks, [[DeadlyGas poison gas]] and, when the Aurora hits, [[HighVoltageDeath a huge amount of electrified wires and equipment]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* ''Anime/DoraemonNobitaAndTheGalaxySuperExpress'' has the gang, aboard the titular express, crashing on an empty mining planet after their fuel was sabotaged. There's an abandoned mine shaft nearby containing a second express, which is still functioning thanks to RagnarokProofing - the heroes obtains it to make an escape afterwards.

* The Coasters' "Along Came Jones". Down in the old abandoned mine, Sweet Sue was a-havin' fits - the villain said "Gimme the deed to your ranch or I'll blow you all to bits!"

** ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'': Mamon Mine. Poisonous puddles, grisly gasses, malevolent monsters... you name it! The mining town goes from decline to virtual ghost town status because of a poison gas seeping from the nearby mines, caused by the fact that the demon king Estark was sealed underground beneath the town centuries ago - and the miners had been unwittingly unsealing his prison.

*** The main ebony mine in Raven Rock on Solstheim in the ''Dragonborn'' DLC was on the verge of becoming one, and its lower levels were already abandoned and sealed off, supposedly due to a lack of ore [[spoiler: (really because they DugTooDeep, found a tomb full of [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Draugr]] and a Dragon Priest, and covered it up]]. Once you [[spoiler:clear the mine of Draugr, defeat the Dragon Priest, and [[TheCloudCuckoolanderWasRight recover evidence of the cover-up]]]], it turns out there was more ebony in the deeper parts of the mine, making it viable once more. This has the effect of reversing the economic downturn the island had been suffering from for the past few decades.

* Many, many side-missions in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' will take place in these- from recovering missing Alliance intelligence to killing husks of a mining team that DugTooDeep. ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' has just one mission in a abandoned mine that is also fighting the remnants of miners who DugTooDeep. ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' keeps it going, with Drack's LoyaltyMission being set in one used by criminals as a hideout.

* ''VideoGame/NightInTheWoods'': The abandoned mines out behind Possum Springs are a big part of the town's history. They're also the place where [[spoiler: the cult of the Black Goat makes their sacrifices.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'' features a rather prominent example of this in the form of the Blue Ridge Mine on [[LovecraftCountry Solomon Island]]. First opened in 1879 and re-opened in 1971, on both occasions the work there was heavily protested by the local Wabanaki, and both periods concluded with the mine being shut down following the deaths of several workers. The [[MegaCorp Orochi Group]] have been trying to reopen the place, but without much success; the Wabanaki, having been awarded ownership of the place as a token gesture, don't want the repetitive DugTooDeep scenario to get any worse. And guess where ''you'' have to go while pursuing the villain late in the Solomon Island arc? [[spoiler: It turns out the mine was actually tunneling in close proximity to one of the legendary [[CosmicKeystone Gaia Engines]], hence why the Orochi Group was so interested in the place; the accidents and madness among the miners were due to the proximity of the [[EldritchAbomination Dreamer]] held in check by the Engine.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Trash of the Titans", Homer Simpson's solution for solving the Springfield Sanitation Department's budget crisis is to allow other major U.S. cities to dump their unwanted garbage in one (located on the outskirts of Springfield) in exchange for money. [[spoiler: The plan backfires when the garbage starts erupting from the ground all over the town.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker'' once found one and decided to see if there was any gold left. An outlaw named Joe claimed the mine as his by writing his name on the Abandoned Mine sign. Woody got the gold but [[spoiler: it was fool's gold and the assays officer threatened to shoot the next one to bring it. At least Woody had a good laugh by luring Joe into being the next one.]]

* The Rhondda Mine from ''[[VideoGame/ShadowHearts Shadow Heats Covenant]]'' was abandoned after a huge explosion in the deepest parts of the mine caused the deaths of more than one hundred miners. Now, the only ones there are ghosts and other nasties that have made the place their turf.