Reclamation Awards

Mineral Mining and the VTCA jointly sponsor an annual mined land reclamation awards program. Mine operations that have performed exemplary, or innovative reclamation of lands previously disturbed for mining are nominated by their respective mine inspectors for awards in quarry and non-quarry categories. Operations that win the overall state award go on to compete with mining operations from other states for national awards. Virginia mining operations have been awarded numerous national reclamation awards. Our operations are considered to be leaders in returning mined land to productive uses.

2025 Virginia Reclamation Award Winners

Please join us in congratulating these award winners for their hard work and for their contributions to keeping our environment healthy and beautiful in the Commonwealth!

Overall Winner and Best Non-Quarry:

Amrize Mid-Atlantic, Charles City Plant working in collaboration with AES, a solar company, over several years to re-purpose the 347 acres site in Charles Ciry County to a new solar center. The Keydet Solar Center has a planned capacity of 120 MW and is adjacent to the Skipjack Solar Center also owned by AES. One of the greatest challenges was teh compaction required for the structural foundation of the solar panels. 

Best Quarry:

Martin Marietta, Amelia Quarry serve the construction aggregate market as the Richmond area. As part of the initial site development overburden and topsoil were removed from the planned pit area and placed in berms along the northwest and southeast perimeter. These berms serve to provide screening along Butlers Road which travels along the western perimeter of the site as well as residential housing south of the mine. This area has been revegated with a seed mix recommned by the Natural Resource Conservation Office and over 16,800 pine trees planted in the 28.4 acre area providing a wildlife habitat.

Honorable Mentions:

Boxley Materials, OtterRiver #2 in Campbell County has been mined since 1975. 8.55 acres were reclaimed in a joint venture with Superior Paving. This effort required not only grading, vegetation and stabilizatoin of the area as a result of recent flood events, but the removal of a Linkbelt LS-108B dragline that weighed 45 tons and was an enviromental liabiliy due to the prozimity of the Big Otter River.

Michael A. Gregg, #2 in Mathews County is a family owned sand pit that has been in operation since 1994 They reclamined 15 acres which is now a beautiful home to wildlife and waterfowl.

Iluka Resources, Brink Mine in Greenville County mined heavy mineral sands. While production ceased in 2015, they have been in a state of reclamation since this time. The Iluka site reached a maximum extent of over 1530 acres. During the final phase of reclamation, Iluka faced the unique challenge of controlling sediment and stormwater while transitioning land use from mining back to agriculture. ver 50 miles of HDPE pipelines between the mining areas and the concentrator were removed and recycled, six jack and bores under public roads were grouted in place, and 15 VDOT entrances were remediated and released. 122 monitoring and production wells were capped and transferred to landowners or abandoned in place per DEQ requirements. Iluka also decommissioned the Brink concentrator.

Nestle Purina in King William County is a manufacturer of kitty litter and has over 470 acres permitted. Nestle has reclaimed 50 acres that were previously used as settling ponds. Overtime these ponds had lost capactiy and therefore had reduced functionality. Pond banks were regraded and stabilized with vegeation and rip rap. Seeding was a mixture of pollinator mix in attempt to create a habitat for native insects and birds.

View Press Release here »

2026 National IMCC Award Winner

Iluka Resources Inc, Old Hickory Mine in Dinwiddie County received a 2026 national award for reclamation from the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC). That award was presented that the IMCC annual meeting in May where it won top honors. This site had over 3,500 acres made Old Hickory one of the largest permits in Virginia mining history, and the spread of a mine of such a size in an area as densely populated as southern Virginia is unprecedented.

The Old Hickory site was heavy mineral sand operation that it used slurry mining methods to pump heavy mineral sands from multiple pits to two concentrator plants, Old Hickory and Concord. This estensive reclamation project involved:

• 5.5 million cubic yards of tailings and topsoil were handled,
• 151 sediment traps were backfilled,
• 300 impoundments reclaimed, totaling over 43 million cubic yard of tailings,
• 29 VDOT entrances remediated,
• 50 miles of HDPE pipe removed,
• 13 jack and bores were grouted and closed, and
• 2.5 acres of wetlands restored.

Iluka invested over $1 million in a partnership with Virginia Tech to perform post-mining fertility studies over 20 years. Iluka found that compaction due to equipment tracking was hindering yields and begun deep ripping all regraded areas. In addition, biosolid plots showed significant improvements, but began to fall back in line with control yields as initial nitrogen was depleted. In total, 2,500+ acres have been reclaimed, in addition to the relinquishment of 828 acres to Atlantic Strategic Minerals. Iluka’s remaining 159 acres are planned to be released by the end of 2026.