Aminimum metal mine is aland mine that is designed to use the smallest amount of metal possible in its construction. Typically, the only metal components are located inside thefuze mechanism which triggers detonation.^[1] Both minimum metalanti-tank andanti-personnel mines exist. Some designs contain virtually no metal at all, e.g., less than agram.

This is achieved by encasing the explosive charge in aplastic,wooden, orglass body, with metallic components limited to the few small parts in thefuze which can not easily be made from other materials, such as the spring, striker tip, andshear pin.^[2] Minimum metal mines are extremely difficult to detect using conventionalmetal mine detectors and usually require modern techniques, such as roboticMulti Period Sensing (MPS) equipment, to identify, but it is still extremely difficult to find non-metallic mines. These techniques are usually restricted to well-funded internationalmine clearing organizations and major militaries, making minimum metal mines especially pernicious where they are encountered.^[3]

Though rare, a few land mine designs (both anti-tank and anti-personnel) contain no metal whatsoever.^[4] Such mines cannot be found using metal detectors because there is no metal to detect. Typically, 100% non-metallic landmines have a plastic case and afuze which comprises a glass or plasticvial containing a mixture of friction-sensitivepyrotechnic composition and glass powder. Downward force on the pressure plate overcomes the breaking strain of a plasticshear pin which snaps, allowing the non-metallic firing pin assembly to move. The firing pin is pushed down through a flexible plastic forcing-cone, which abruptly releases it on the other side at much higher velocity. Concentrated pressure is thereby transferred directly onto the glass vial, crushing and fracturing it. Alternatively, when the shear pin breaks, pressure on the fuze is transferred onto a plasticbelleville spring which flips downwards, stabbing a non-metallic tapered pin (sometimes made from aglass ceramic) through a thin plastic membrane covering the vial of friction-sensitive pyrotechnic mixture. Either way, this action causes a flash of flame that triggers thedetonator and initiates the adjacentbooster which in turndetonates the main explosive filling.

Early examples included theGermanGlasmine 43,Schu-mine 42 andTopfmine used duringWorld War II. These designs were either difficult or impossible to find using 1940s metal detectors.

Many different types of minimum metal mines have been produced in various countries over the years. Relatively modern examples include the antitank minesM19 (United States, less than 3g of metal) andTMA-3 (Serbia, no metal) and the anti-personnel mines PRB M-409 (Belgium, less than 1g) and thePMA-2 orPMA-3 Serbia, (approx 1g non-magnetic) andVS-50 (Italy). Since the 1970s and until 1993 (when the country enacted a national landmines manufacturing ban, four years before signing theOttawa Treaty) Italy became a world leader in the manufacture of minimum metal mines; the three main Italian landmine manufacturers were mostly producing minimum-metal mines by the early 1980s.Valsella Meccanotecnica SpA manufactured theVS-50 andVS-Mk2.Misar SpA produced theSB-81 andSB-33, andTecnovar Italiana SpA produced theTS-50,TC/3.6 and TC/6 mines.

Article 4 of the 1996 Amended Protocol II to theConvention on Certain Conventional Weapons provides that "It is prohibited to use anti-personnel mines which are not detectable, as specified in paragraph 2 of the Technical Annex^[5]."

• Anti-handling device
• Blast resistant mine
• List of land mines (provides extensive details of various designs)