North Carolina Administrative Code › Title 15A - Environmental Quality › Chapter 05 - MINING - MINERAL RESOURCES › Subchapter B - PERMITTING AND REPORTING › Section 05B .0103 - BONDING REQUIREMENTS

Current through Register Vol. 39, No. 2, July 15, 2024
(a) After an
				application for a new mining permit or permit renewal, modification, or
				transfer is considered approvable by the Department, an applicant or permittee
				must file a bond with the Department in an amount to be determined by the
				Director.
(b) If the applicant or
				permittee disagrees with the bond amount determined by the Director, the
				applicant or permittee may submit to the Director for his consideration, an
				estimate of reclamation costs from a third party contractor to be used as the
				bond amount. The estimate shall be provided to the Director within 30 days
				following the receipt of the Director's initial bond determination. After
				considering the estimate and recommendations provided by his staff, the
				Director shall notify the applicant or permittee of his bond determination and
				the process and conditions used to set the bond amount.
(c) The Director may invite the applicant or
				permittee to submit to the Department an estimate of reclamation costs from a
				third party contractor for the Director's use in determining the required bond
				amount. After considering the estimate and the recommendations provided by his
				staff, the Director shall notify the applicant or permittee of his bond
				determination and the process and conditions used to set the bond
				amount.
(d) The amount of the bond
				shall be based on the costs to reclaim the affected land as determined by the
				reclamation plan approved pursuant to
				G.S.
				74-53 and
				15A NCAC
				05B .0004(b). The bond
				amount shall be based on a range of five hundred dollars ($500.00) to five
				thousand dollars ($5,000) per acre of land approved by the Department to be
				affected. If the mining permit is modified to increase the total affected land,
				the bond shall be increased accordingly. The Director shall consider the method
				and extent of the required reclamation for a particular site in determining the
				bond amount. As areas at a site are reclaimed and formally released by the
				Department, the permittee may substitute a bond in an amount covering the
				remaining affected land at the site for the bond previously filed with the
				Department; otherwise, without such bond substitution, the Department shall
				retain the previously filed bond until all reclamation has been completed and
				approved by the Department.
(e) If
				an applicant or permittee has multiple sites, the applicant or permittee may
				file a separate bond with the Department for each site or the applicant or
				permittee may submit one blanket bond covering all sites in the aggregate
				amount of all bond totals. Once the total amount of all bonds for separate
				sites or the total of blanket bond(s) for all sites reaches five hundred
				thousand dollars ($500,000):
(1) the
				applicant or permittee with separate bonds may substitute a five hundred
				thousand dollar ($500,000) blanket bond to be used for all future sites,
				or
(2) the applicant or permittee
				with the five hundred thousand dollar ($500,000) blanket bond covering all
				sites may use that blanket bond for all future sites,
if the Director finds that the applicant or permittee, in
				  either case, has a good operating record, that the five hundred thousand
				  dollars ($500,000) is sufficient to reclaim all sites and that no additional
				  reclamation bond money is needed. If the Director finds that the applicant or
				  permittee does not have a good operating record, that the five hundred thousand
				  dollars ($500,000) is not sufficient to reclaim all sites, or that additional
				  reclamation money is needed, the Director shall require per acreage bonding for
				  future sites as provided in Paragraph (d) of this Rule.