August 13, 2026 Mining & Oil/Gas new business activity in Florida

Mining is one of Florida's smallest business sectors and one of its most permit-heavy. The state has no coal and no hard-rock metal mines. What it has is limerock and sand, phosphate, heavy mineral sands, and a small oil business tucked into two corners of the state. Rock mined in the Miami-Dade Lake Belt supplies one-half of the limestone used in Florida each year. Phosphate mining runs across roughly 1.3 million acres of central Florida known as Bone Valley. And the state's 2026 well production report lists 102 oil wells across five counties. Nearly every new business in this sector starts with a county hearing and a state permit, not a storefront.

New mining and oil and gas businesses are forming fastest in Southeast Florida. A new mining or extraction business leans on a short, specific list of local firms. It needs an environmental consultant and a permit expediter to get through review, a surveyor and a geologist, traffic engineers for the haul route, earthmoving and hauling contractors, equipment dealers and heavy equipment repair shops, blasting and drilling services, dewatering and water management crews, reclamation and native planting firms, federally mandated mine safety training, and bonding and liability insurance. Because the permits are slow and public, most of that support work starts long before any material is sold.

The counts below show where new mining and oil and gas businesses are registering, by region, over the last 30, 90, and 365 days. Under them is the recent news operators are watching, from sand mine hearings in four counties to the state's monthly oil report, with the specific businesses each one creates work for. The permit programs and the official pages live at the bottom, in Mining & Oil/Gas Resources.

New mining and oil and gas businesses by region, over the last 30, 90, and 365 days. Regions are ranked by the last year. This is a small sector, so the region counts move in small numbers.

Otros 59 negocios nuevos del último año no indicaron un condado, así se cuentan en el total de Florida pero no se ubican en una región.

Recent developments in a small sector, with the real date of each and the businesses it creates work for. Florida mining news moves through county dockets and state permit files far more than through press events, and a single case can sit open for a year, so two items below carry early June dates because that is where the detail on those projects lives. Every region has an item this time.

• Central Florida (I-4 Corridor & Space Coast)· 2026-07-08

  Polk County approves a boundary change at a 554 acre sand mine near Lake Wales

  The Polk County Planning Commission approved case LDCU-2026-15, the Grove Sand Mine, at its hearing on July 8, 2026. The final order names Carlos Vergara as the applicant and Blue Water Industries Florida LLC as the property owner. The request modified an earlier approval, LDCU-2024-39, to reflect the abandonment and dedication of rights of way along the surrounding roads. Vacating J L Massey Road raises the mine from 551.2 acres to 554.2 acres, and the staff report places the site across 13 parcels south of Tindel Camp Road and east of the city of Lake Wales. The new road dedication also narrows the strip along Saint Helena Road, cutting into the setback of 100 feet the county code normally requires between mining and a road line.

  A boundary and setback change at a working pit is paperwork with a field crew attached. Somebody has to resurvey the lines, redraw the operations and reclamation sheets, and stake the new limits before a machine moves.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • land surveyors
  • civil engineers
  • land use attorneys
  • permit expediters
  • earthmoving contractors
  • haul truck fleets
  • heavy equipment repair shops
  • reclamation and native planting crews

  Sand dug close to where it is used keeps building material costs down and keeps loaded trucks off long routes across Florida.

  Fuente: Polk County Planning Commission

• Central Florida (I-4 Corridor & Space Coast)· 2026-08-04

  Polk County sets hearings to move mined ground out of phosphate land use

  At its meeting on August 4, 2026 the Polk County Board of County Commissioners set two public hearings on large scale comprehensive plan map amendments, both in the county's Rural Development Area. Case LDCPAL-2025-3, listed as US Parrish & Keller A/RR CPA, covers 66.5 acres. Case LDCPAL 2025-2, listed as US 98 Ft. Meade ARR CPA, covers 116.5 acres. Each would change the future land use designation from Phosphate Mining to Agricultural/Residential Rural.

  Ground coming off a mining designation is ground about to be resurveyed, tested, replanted and eventually built on, and that sequence starts with consultants long before a builder is called.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • land surveyors
  • geotechnical testing labs
  • environmental consultants
  • land use planners
  • civil engineers
  • site clearing crews
  • agricultural fencing contractors
  • well drillers

  Retiring mined ground into farm and rural residential use puts land back to work and gives the counties around Bone Valley room to grow.

  Fuente: Polk County Board of County Commissioners

• Tampa Bay (Gulf Coast)· 2026-08-11

  Citrus County commissioners take up the Lecanto sand mine ordinance

  The Citrus County Board of County Commissioners listed case CPA/AA/PUD-2025-00010, filed by Lecanto Sand LLC, as a public hearing at 5:01 p.m. on its August 11, 2026 agenda. The item directs the Chair and Clerk to execute the ordinance for the case if it is approved, and it is carried by the county's Growth Management Director. The agenda itself records no outcome.

  An ordinance hearing is the last county gate before a mine can be permitted and dug, so it is the point where the work behind a project stops being speculative and starts being scheduled.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • land use attorneys
  • civil engineers
  • permit expediters
  • excavation contractors
  • dump truck operators
  • site work contractors

  Settling a mine in an advertised public hearing keeps the trade off between local fill supply and neighborhood impact on the public record.

  Fuente: Citrus County Board of County Commissioners

• Tampa Bay (Gulf Coast)· 2026-06-05

  The Lecanto sand mine file: 70 acres, 2.3 million cubic yards, one haul road

  The hearing file behind that Citrus County case went before a special master on June 5, 2026. It asks to change the Future Land Use Map from Low Density Residential District to Extractive District and to add a Planned Unit Development for a new sand mine under Section 4800 of the county Land Development Code. The applicant's own submittal calls the project a 70 acre borrow pit that will serve the Suncoast Extension, a new Home Depot in the area, and local contractors needing site and roadway fill, with material also sold to the public. The plans show mining phased in units of 40 acres to meet Environmental Resource Permit limits, a total of 2.3 million cubic yards of cut, no processing on site, and truck access only along South McLure Point Drive.

  3 oportunidades en esta actualización

  • The application rests on a stack of outside studies: a biological assessment covering gopher tortoises and other listed species, geotechnical and materials testing to confirm the sand meets fill specification, and drainage and erosion control plans for both phases. Those reports are written by consultants rather than by the operator, and they are redone as conditions change.
  • Phasing the excavation in units of 40 acres makes the earthmoving a repeating cycle rather than one push. Each phase needs clearing, dewatering, contour survey and stabilization, so the same crews come back to the site for years instead of once.
  • Access limited to a single road puts the haul route itself in play. Road building, shoulder work and traffic control all follow an approval, and the fill leaving the gate feeds site work and paving crews across the county.

  A pit dug to feed a named highway job and a named store is a scheduling problem before it is a mining one, and the hearing file already names most of the trades that get called first.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • environmental consultants
  • wildlife biologists
  • geotechnical testing labs
  • civil engineers
  • land surveyors
  • excavation contractors
  • dump truck operators
  • site work contractors
  • traffic control firms

  Fill sourced next to the road project that needs it holds down the cost of building highways and stores in Florida and shortens every haul.

  Fuente: Citrus County Special Master Hearing

• Southeast Florida (Gold Coast, Treasure Coast & Keys)· anunciado 2026-07-23

  Miami-Dade County renames a road at the Cemex cement plant

  Cemex and Miami-Dade County unveiled Cemex Way on July 23, 2026, a renamed one mile stretch of NW 137th Avenue in front of the company's Miami Cement Plant. County Commissioner Juan Carlos Bermudez of District 12 took part. Cemex says the plant has operated since 1958 and supports nearly 600 jobs today, and it describes the wider construction materials industry in South Florida as supporting more than 10,000 jobs and $544 million in wages.

  A cement plant that has run on one site for decades anchors a supply chain reaching well past the plant gate, and the vendors around it turn over far less often than the projects they serve.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • ready mix concrete plants
  • bulk cement hauling fleets
  • concrete pumping contractors
  • precast concrete makers
  • industrial electricians
  • conveyor maintenance crews
  • paving contractors

  Cement made and shipped inside Miami-Dade shortens the supply line for South Florida construction and steadies what it costs to build there.

  Fuente: Cemex USA

• Southwest Florida· 2026-06-09

  A 243.97 acre sand mine returns to Highlands County with staff recommending denial

  Case BOA 2004, the Hicoria Sand Mine, came back to the Highlands County Zoning Board of Adjustment as old business on June 9, 2026. The application seeks a special exception for a sand mine across three parcels totaling about 243.97 acres at 97 Paul Road, 155 Paul Road, and 57 Hicoria Road in Venus, under Section 12.05.200.F.14 of the county code. The staff report lists Cool and Cobb Engineering as agent, puts the proposed excavation area at roughly 170 of those acres, and recommends the board deny the application. County engineering staff wrote that the proposed haul route is substandard and classified as a local roadway, the road department asked for a single entrance and a paved shoulder for 50 feet in each direction from it, and the state noted that an Environmental Resource Permit would be required before any excavation begins.

  A mining special exception is decided on traffic, water and buffers, so the work it generates lands first with the specialists who produce those studies and then with the road crews any approval would require.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • traffic engineers
  • hydrogeologists
  • wetland consultants
  • land surveyors
  • civil engineers
  • road building contractors
  • excavation contractors

  A public record on haul routes and water tables is how Florida settles where mining fits before the first load leaves a site.

  Fuente: Highlands County Zoning Board of Adjustment

• Southwest Florida· reportado 2026-08-07

  The state oil report now runs through June, and Southwest Florida holds 34 of the wells

  The Florida Department of Environmental Protection updated its 2026 well production report on August 7, 2026, and the report now carries June as its most current submitted month. The June sheet lists 34 wells in Collier, Hendry, and Lee Counties, spread across the Bear Island, Corkscrew, Lehigh Park, Mid-Felda, Raccoon Point, Sunniland, and West Felda fields. Only 9 of the 34 reported any production for the month, and the single listed Lee County well reported none. Breitburn Operating LP and Hendry Energy Services are the operators named on those rows.

  Most of the wells on that sheet sat idle in June, and an idle well is not a closed one. It still has to be checked, maintained, insured and eventually plugged, which is steady work in a thin rural market.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • well service crews
  • pump and valve repair shops
  • water hauling companies
  • tank cleaning contractors
  • corrosion and coatings crews
  • environmental monitoring labs
  • surety bond agents
  • land and lease title firms

  A small, monitored production base in Southwest Florida supports rural jobs and keeps every well inside the state's public permitting system.

  Fuente: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Oil and Gas Program

• Northwest Florida (Panhandle & Capital)· 2026-08-06

  Escambia County takes up extraction permits for two borrow pits

  The Escambia County Board of County Commissioners set two public hearings for its meeting on August 6, 2026, each on an Operational Permit for Resource Extraction. One covers the HHH Borrow Pit at 4000 Rocky Branch Road, parcel 13-2N-31-2000-000-040. The other covers the Molino Dirt and Sand Borrow Pit at 1600 Highway 97, parcel 19-3N-31-1301-000-000. Each hearing asks the board to approve or deny a request for the county Development Services Department to issue the permit.

  A borrow pit is the cheapest fill for road and subdivision work nearby, so an operating permit quietly settles where the next few years of dirt in that part of the county comes from.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • excavation contractors
  • dump truck operators
  • site work contractors
  • road building contractors
  • land surveyors
  • environmental consultants
  • heavy equipment dealers

  Fill dug close to the job keeps Panhandle road and housing costs down and shortens the haul on every load.

  Fuente: Escambia County Board of County Commissioners

• Northwest Florida (Panhandle & Capital)· reportado 2026-08-07

  Panhandle counties hold 68 of Florida's 102 listed oil wells

  In the same state report updated on August 7, 2026, the June sheet lists 59 wells in Santa Rosa County and 9 in Escambia County, in the Jay, Blackjack Creek, and Mt Carmel fields. Of the 59 Santa Rosa wells, 27 reported production for the month, and 5 of the 9 Escambia wells did. Breitburn Operating LP, Petro Operating Company, and Pruet are the operators named on the Panhandle rows. Those two counties hold 68 of the 102 wells the June sheet lists statewide.

  A producing field keeps steady technical work going that has nothing to do with drilling anything new, and most of it is bought from vendors within an hour of the wellhead.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • workover and well service crews
  • pipeline maintenance crews
  • electrical and instrumentation technicians
  • machine shops
  • produced water hauling companies
  • spill response contractors
  • mine and well safety trainers
  • regulatory reporting consultants

  The Panhandle fields keep long running technical jobs in Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties and keep production reporting on the public record.

  Fuente: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Oil and Gas Program

• Northeast Florida (First Coast)· 2026-06-19

  The state redrafts a definition in its heavy mineral reclamation rules

  The Florida Department of Environmental Protection posted a draft of Rule 62C-37.002 in June 2026, and the page was last modified on June 19, 2026. The chapter is titled Heavy Mineral Reclamation Requirements, and this section holds its definitions. The draft resets the definition of Bureau to the Bureau of Mine Reclamation at 2051 East Dirac Drive in Tallahassee and renumbers the subsections after it, with no other change. Heavy mineral sand mining is a Northeast Florida business, and the state says the industry operates in Baker, Bradford, Clay, and Duval Counties.

  A housekeeping edit is not a new obligation, but it is a reminder of where the reclamation file for every mineral sand mine in these counties is reviewed, and reclamation is the part of a mine that outlives the digging.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • reclamation contractors
  • native planting crews
  • wetland consultants
  • land surveyors
  • environmental monitoring labs
  • earthmoving contractors
  • permit expediters

  Clear reclamation rules are the reason mined land in Northeast Florida comes back as usable ground rather than staying a hole.

  Fuente: Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Mining and Mitigation Program

• North Central Florida (Gainesville & Ocala)· 2026-08-04

  Marion County updates the name on its limerock supply contract

  Marion County item 2026-23734 went to the Board of County Commissioners on August 4, 2026, seeking a contract amendment numbered 21Q-042-CA-06. It changes the named limerock supplier under contract 21Q-042 from Florida Stone Products, doing business as Georgia Stone Products of Denver, to Boxley Materials Company, doing business as Quikrete Aggregates of Atlanta, and extends to purchases from that company's subsidiaries. The county's approved limerock supplier contracts date to January 19 and February 2, 2021.

  A county limerock contract is the base material behind road building, drainage and site work, so the name on it settles where public projects and the contractors on them buy their rock.

  A quiénes les sirve

  • road building contractors
  • aggregate hauling fleets
  • site work contractors
  • drainage contractors
  • ready mix concrete plants
  • materials testing labs

  Keeping a county's rock supply under a live contract holds road and drainage costs steady in a stretch of Florida where limerock is both mined and used.

  Fuente: Marion County Board of County Commissioners

• We count each business by the date it registered with the state, so this shows new business formation, not the current number of mining or energy companies.
• State records post about 2 weeks behind, so the last week or two will keep rising as more filings arrive.
• This is one of Florida's smallest primary industries, so region counts are small and a single month can swing a region's rank. Read the 365 day column for the steadier picture.
• Mines and pits are permitted by the county, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the regional water management district, and those records are public, which is why new operators are traceable soon after they form.
• News items come from county agendas, hearing packets, and state permit files, and every one was read at its own source before it was written up here.
• Counts cover active Florida businesses and update daily.

Fuente de licencias estatales: Florida DEP, Mining and Mitigation Program.

Preguntas frecuentes

Where are the most new mining and oil and gas businesses forming in Florida?

This report ranks every Florida region by new mining and oil and gas businesses and shows if activity is heating up or slowing down. The counts are small in every region, so the 365 day figure is the one to read.

What does Florida actually mine?

Limestone, shell and dolomite. Phosphate. Heavy mineral sands. Sand, fill and peat. There is no coal and no hard-rock metal mining. Rock from the Miami-Dade Lake Belt supplies one-half of the limestone used in Florida each year, and phosphate mining is centered on roughly 1.3 million acres of central Florida known as Bone Valley.

What is a borrow pit, and why do so many of them come up at county meetings?

A borrow pit is a sand or fill mine dug to supply a specific project nearby, such as a road or a subdivision. Hauling fill is expensive, so a pit close to the job is worth opening even when it is small. That is why they show up on county agendas as special exceptions and extraction permits rather than as statewide mining news.

Does Florida produce oil?

Yes, a small amount. The state's 2026 well production report lists 102 oil wells across five counties in its June sheet, and most of them reported nothing for that month. The wells sit in Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties in the Panhandle and in Collier, Hendry, and Lee Counties in Southwest Florida.

What permits does a new Florida mine need?

Usually a county approval first, such as a special exception or a conditional use, then an Environmental Resource Permit and a reclamation plan reviewed by the Department of Environmental Protection or the water management district for that region. Mine crews also need federally mandated MSHA safety training, which the Florida Mine Safety Program provides statewide.

Where does this data come from?

The formation counts come from official Florida business-registration records. We pull every new filing, sort it by industry and region, and update daily. We count a business by the date it registered with the state. Permit, hearing, and production figures come from the county boards, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, and the water management districts.

Can I see the actual businesses?

Yes. You get the real filings, with business names, addresses, and officers, free for 7 days, with no credit card required. Start a free 7 day trial to see them.

The standing resources that govern Florida mining and extraction, starting with the statewide permit programs and the mine safety training program, then the water management district and local body for each region. This is the rulebook, not the news. Check it to see the programs a new operator works through, or send a new operator here.