246 American operations, working and lost

The trade behind the mines. Every operation in this directory is kept running by firms that never appear on a map — the drillers, the assay labs, the permitting consultants, the haulage outfits. Most of the employment in American mining sits here, and there is no decent public list of it by category.

260 firms across 17 categories, in 41 states. Every one was found by hand and checked against the company’s own website. None of them asked to be here and none of them paid, so nothing on this page is an endorsement and the order inside each category is simply the alphabet. Where a firm could not be confirmed from its own site, it was left out rather than guessed at.

Three categories are still thin or empty — ore and concentrate supply, reclamation, and the catch-all — and they say so rather than pretending otherwise. Every category also carries the questions worth asking before you sign with anyone in that trade, and the reference page behind it explains the work itself.

If you work in one of these trades, listing is free. If you are already listed and something is wrong — or you would rather not be here at all — say so and we will fix it or take it down.

List your business — free