Current through Register Vol. 6, March 22, 2024
(1)
For the purposes of administering the Act the department will presume that an
operation is abandoned or completed (and thus subject to the reclamation time
schedule outlined in
82-4-336, MCA) as soon as ore
ceases to be extracted for future use or processing. Should the operator wish
to rebut said assumption, the operator must provide evidence satisfactory to
the department that the operations have not in fact been abandoned or
completed.
(2) Documentation of any
of the following situations will be adequate evidence of intent not to abandon
operations:
(a) the mine or mill work force
is on strike while negotiating a new contract;
(b) the mine or mill is shut down because of
some failure of the transportation network in moving ore or processed
material;
(c) the mine or mill is
shut down because of a natural catastrophe and plans to resume operations are
being formulated;
(d) the mine or
mill is seasonally shut down due to predictable annual variance in the mined
product's market or because of inclement weather or seasonal
inaccessibility;
(e) the mine or
mill is shut down for maintenance or the construction of new
facilities;
(f) the mine or mill is
forced to temporarily shut down because of violation of other state or federal
laws and efforts are being made to remedy the cause of the violation.
(3) At the discretion of the
department, the following evidence and any other relevant evidence may be
satisfactory to show intent to resume operations:
(a) exhibition of drill core and accompanying
assay reports to show that ore minerals still remain in the mine and that they
are present in veins or accumulations of sufficient size, grade and
accessibility to warrant continued development. Geological, geochemical or
geophysical indications of valuable mineralization sufficient to warrant
further development or mining will also be considered by the
department;
(b) continued
employment of a maintenance crew to dewater the mine or replace timbers,
etc.;
(c) data recording present
and predicted commodity prices, labor and transportation costs, etc., or any
other evidence which may show that mining may soon resume on a profitable
basis. Board comment: It is recognized that "abandonment or completion of
mining" under the operating permit (see
82-4-336, MCA) is an action
commonly predicated upon complex and changing economic circumstances; that
cessation of mining need not mean abandonment or completion; and that short of
obtaining an operator's records and examining the mine development drill core,
the department may be unable to determine the operator's true intent.
82-4-321, MCA; IMP,
82-4-336,
MCA;