Minnesota Administrative Rules
Agency 158 - Natural Resources Department
Chapter 6131 - PEAT MINING
GENERAL PROVISIONS
Part 6131.0010 - DEFINITIONS

Subpart 1. Auxiliary facilities.

"Auxiliary facilities" means all permittee-owned stationary physical property used in a mining operation, including power plants and associated facilities; transmission lines; pipelines; roads; railroads; borrow areas and leased borrow areas and associated facilities; fuel production or preparation facilities; and parking areas, shops, offices, buildings, structures, and storage facilities located within the area where mining is conducted. This does not include common carrier transportation facilities.

Subp. 2. Beneficiating plants.

"Beneficiating plants" means all processing plants and other facilities used for pelletizing, chemical extraction, gasification, compaction, drying, bagging, densification, pulverizing, and wet carbonization.

Subp. 3. Commissioner.

"Commissioner" means the commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, or a duly authorized representative.

Subp. 4. Deactivation.

"Deactivation" means the process of finally terminating and reclaiming any specific portion of a mining operation. Deactivation begins when mining activities and uses associated with product production have ceased and there will be no renewed use by the permittee that will interfere with reclamation.

Subp. 5. Hereafter.

"Hereafter" means after August 5, 1985.

Subp. 6. Mine plot.

"Mine plot" means an area from which peat is or will be mined as part of a permitted mining operation. This does not include areas that have been successfully reclaimed.

Subp. 7. Mining area or area subjected to mining.

"Mining area" or "area subjected to mining" means any area of land from which material is hereafter removed in connection with the extraction of peat; the lands upon which material from mining is hereafter deposited; the lands upon which beneficiation plants and auxiliary facilities are hereafter located; lands upon which the water reservoirs used in the mining process are hereafter located; and auxiliary lands that are hereafter used or intended to be used in a particular mining operation.

Subp. 8. Natural resources.

"Natural resources" means all mineral, animal, plant, air, water, land, timber, soil, quietude, recreational, historic, scenic, and aesthetic resources.

Subp. 9. Operating life of the mine.

"Operating life of the mine" means the term determined necessary by the commissioner for the completion of the proposed mining operation, including reclamation.

Subp. 10. Operator.

"Operator" means any owner or lessee of peat resources engaged in or preparing to engage in a mining operation.

Subp. 11. Peat.

"Peat" means organic matter, excluding coal, formed by the partial decomposition of plant material under saturated conditions.

Subp. 12. Peat mining.

"Peat mining" means the removal of peat for commercial purposes, including draining, stockpiling, processing, storing, transporting, and reclaiming any material in connection with the commercial development of peat. "Peat mining" does not include removal of peat that is incidental to the harvesting of an agricultural or horticultural crop, or to mining of a metallic mineral that is subject to a mineland reclamation rule and a permit to mine.

Subp. 13. Permit to mine or mining permit.

"Permit to mine" or "mining permit" means permit issued pursuant to Minnesota Statutes, section 93.481.

Subp. 14. Progressive reclamation.

"Progressive reclamation" means the removal of resource in a manner which creates areas that can be reclaimed as soon after initiation of the operation as practical and as continuously as practical throughout the life of the operation.

Subp. 15. Protected waters.

"Protected waters" means those waters of the state identified as public waters or wetlands under Minnesota Statutes, section 103G.005, subdivision 15 or 15a; or 103G.201.

Subp. 16. Reclamation.

"Reclamation" means the successful accomplishment of the goals in parts 6131.0100 to 6131.0130.

Subp. 17. Stockpile.

"Stockpile" means an accumulation of mined or processed peat.