Oklahoma Administrative Code › Title 460 - Department of Mines › Chapter 10 - Non-Coal Rules and Regulations › Subchapter 1 - General Provisions › Section 460:10-1-5 - Definitions

Current through Vol. 41, No. 20, July 1, 2024
The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter,
				  shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates
				  otherwise:
"Affected land"
means the area of land from
				  which the overburden shall have been removed, or upon which overburden or
				  refuse has deposited or both.
"Box cut"
means the first open cut in strip
				  mining which results in the placing of overburden on unmined land adjacent to
				  the initial pit and outside the area to be mined.
"Consolidated material"
means material of
				  sufficient hardness or ability to resist weathering and outside the area to be
				  mined.
"Department"
means the office of the Chief Mine
				  Inspector, herein called the Department of Mines and Mining, or such
				  department, bureau, or commission as may be lawfully succeed to the powers and
				  duties of such department.
"Director"
means the Chief Mine Inspector of the
				  State of Oklahoma or such officer, bureau or commission as may lawfully succeed
				  to the powers and duties of such department.
"Limited use permit"
means a restricted,
				  non-coal surface mining and reclamation permit limited to two (2) acres and
				  limited to a one (1) year term.
"Mine"
means an underground or surface
				  excavation and development with or without shafts, slopes, drifts or tunnels
				  for the exaction of minerals with hoisting or haulage equipment and appliances
				  for the extraction thereof, and shall embrace any and all of the land or
				  property of the plant, and the surface and underground, that contribute
				  directly or indirectly to the mining properties, concentration or handling of
				  minerals.
"Minerals"
means asphalt, clay, copper, granite,
				  gravel, gypsum, lead, marble, salt, sand, shale, stone, tripoli, volcanic ash
				  and zinc. or any other substance commonly recognized as a mineral, and includes
				  ores or rock containing any such substances, but excludes oil, gas, and any
				  other mineral found naturally in a liquid or gaseous state.
"Mining"
means the extraction of minerals from
				  natural deposits by any method or process.
"Operator"
means any person, partnership, firm
				  or corporation engaged in and controlling a mining operation.
"Overburden"
means all of the earth and other
				  materials which lie above natural deposits of minerals, and also means such
				  earth and other materials disturbed from their natural state in the process of
				  surface mining.
"Peak"
means a projecting point of overburden
				  created in the surface mining process.
"Pit"
means a tract of land from which
				  overburden or minerals have been or are being removed in the process of surface
				  mining.
"Reclamation"
means conditioning affected land
				  to make it suitable for any uses or purposes consistent with those enumerated
				  in 45 O.S. Section 725 .
"Refuse"
means all waste material directly
				  connected with the production, cleaning, or preparation of minerals which have
				  been mined by either underground or surface miningmethod.
"Ridge"
means a lengthening elevation of
				  overburden created in the surface mining process.
"Strip mining"
means those mining operations
				  carried out by removing the overburden lying above natural deposits of
				  minerals, and mining directly from such natural deposits thereby exposed, but
				  excludes augur mining, quarrying, dredging, pumping or the use of hydraulic
				  methods.
"Surface mining"
means those mining operations
				  carried out on the surface, including strip mining. auger mining, quarrying,
				  dredging, pumping, or the use of hydraulic methods. Surface mining shall not
				  include excavation or removal of shale, sand, sand, gravel, clay, rock, or
				  other materials in remote areas by an owner or holder of a possessory interest
				  in land for the primary purpose of construction or maintenance of access roads
				  to or on such landowner's property. Surface mining shall not include excavation
				  or grading conducted for forming on-site road construction or other on-site
				  construction , or the exaction of minerals other than anthracite and bituminous
				  coal by a landowner for noncommercial use from land owned or leased the
				  landowner; nor mining for commercial purpose conducted under a limited use
				  permit issued by the Department; nor the extraction of sand, grave, rock,
				  stone, earth or fill from borrow pits for highway construction purpose, so long
				  as such work is performed under a bond, contract and specifications which
				  substantially provide for and require reclamation of the area affected; nor to
				  the handling, processing or storage of slag on the premises of a manufacturer
				  as part of the manufacturing process. Surface mining shall not include the
				  surface mining of coal or the surface effects of underground coal
				  mining.
"Ton"
means 2000 pounds avoirdupois (.90718
				  metric ton).
"Underground mining"
means those mining
				  operations carried out beneath the surface by means of shafts, slopes, tunnels,
				  or other openings leading to the mineral being mined and the extraction of the
				  mineral through such shafts, slopes, tunnels or their
				  openings.
Amended at 26 Ok Reg
				  3002, eff 8-27-09