Opinion ID: 6536714
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Gas in a pipeline has been extracted, hoisted, and raised from the mine or mining claim.

Text: Gas must be extracted, hoisted, and raised from the mine or mining claim to qualify as a dump. 57 All American, Inman, and the State agree that gas in a pipeline has been extracted from the ground and hoisted and raised from its native reservoir into the pipeline. But Cook Inlet argues that gas in a pipeline does not meet this statutory requirement because pipelines are included in the definition of mine or mining claim, 58 and a dump must be extracted, hoisted, and raised from a mine or mining claim . (Emphasis in original.) Cook Inlet contends that gas must be removed from the mine, and because gas in a pipeline is still part of the mine itself, it is not a dump. Cook Inlet's argument fails to recognize either the breadth of the definition of mine or mining claim or the distinction between a dump and its location or container. The definition of mine or mining claim is broad; it includes five primary categories of property: (1) a block or parcel of mining ground; (2) all valuable mineral deposits; (3) various structures below the surface of the ground; (4) various above-ground structures affixed to the ground and used in the working, mining, and development; and (5) various appurtenances, including roads and pipelines. 59 Based on this broad definition, it is possible for a dump to be created if it is deposited on or placed in property that is itself part of the mine or mining claim. 60 For example, mineral-bearing sands piled on a parcel of mining ground 61 would qualify as a dump, as would oil pumped into a tank[ ] 62 that also happened to be affixed to the ground and used in the working, mining, and development 63 of the mine. Likewise there is no reason that gas in a pipeline cannot constitute a dump, even when the pipeline itself is part of the mine or mining claim. Cook Inlet's suggested interpretation of the statute also fails to reconcile all of the requirements in the dump definition. A dump or mass must both be extracted, hoisted, and raised from a mine or mining claim and in mass at the mine or on the mining claim or adjacent to it. 64 It thus is clear that minerals could not be entirely removed  from a mine and still constitute a dump. We instead interpret extracted, hoisted, and raised to require that minerals must cease being mineral deposits that are part of the mine, 65 not that the minerals must be removed entirely from the mine and its component parts. Gas ceases to be a mineral deposit when it is severed from the land, i.e., extracted from the soil and brought to the surface. 66 Because gas in a pipeline has been extracted from the soil and brought to the surface, it has been extracted, hoisted, and raised from a mine or mining claim.