Minerals Extraction

Welcome to Historic England’s web pages on quarrying, mining and other forms of minerals extraction. Through these pages we aim to help planners, the minerals industry and others to explore the relationship between minerals extraction and the historic environment.

The scale and technical proficiency of the extractive industries today mean that they can have a major, potentially destructive impact on archaeological remains. But they can also offer rare potential to deliver new knowledge about our historic environment.

Minerals can be defined in economic terms as any solid or fluid substance that can be extracted from the earth for profit. These not only include construction minerals, but also energy minerals, metals and industrial minerals. As the Government's adviser on the historic environment and as a statutory consultee to local planning authorities and mineral planning authorities, Historic England provides advice on the significance, designation and management of historic remains relating to the minerals industry.