The chief of the division of mineral resources management may conduct one safety audit at a surface mining operation annually if the operator of the operation has requested the division of mineral resources management to conduct mine safety training for that year. The safety audit shall be scheduled at a time to which the chief and the operator mutually agree and shall not continue more than one day. The chief shall conduct additional safety audits at any surface mining operation if requested by the operator of the operation. If the chief conducts a safety audit, the operator shall ensure that the chief has a copy of the training plan that is required by 30 C.F.R. part 46, as amended, at the time of the audit.

Terms Used In Ohio Code 1514.42

  • Operator: means any person engaged in surface mining who removes minerals, or minerals and incidental coal, from the earth by surface mining or who removes overburden for the purpose of determining the location, quality, or quantity of a mineral deposit. See Ohio Code 1514.01
  • Surface mining: means all or any part of a process followed in the production of minerals from the earth or from the surface of the land by surface excavation methods, such as open pit mining, dredging, placering, or quarrying, and includes the removal of overburden for the purpose of determining the location, quantity, or quality of mineral deposits, and the incidental removal of coal at a rate less than one-sixth the total weight of minerals and coal removed during the year, but does not include: test or exploration boring; mining operations carried out beneath the surface by means of shafts, tunnels, or similar mine openings; the extraction of minerals, other than coal, by a landowner for the landowner's own noncommercial use where such material is extracted and used in an unprocessed form on the same tract of land; the extraction of minerals, other than coal, from borrow pits for highway construction purposes, provided that the extraction is performed under a bond, a contract, and specifications that substantially provide for and require reclamation practices consistent with the requirements of this chapter; the removal of minerals incidental to construction work, provided that the owner or person having control of the land upon which the construction occurs, the contractor, or the construction firm possesses a valid building permit; the removal of minerals to a depth of not more than five feet, measured from the highest original surface elevation of the area to be excavated, where not more than one acre of land is excavated during twelve successive calendar months; routine dredging of a watercourse for purely navigational or flood control purposes during which materials are removed for noncommercial purposes, including activities conducted by or on behalf of a conservancy district, organized under Chapter 6101. See Ohio Code 1514.01
  • surface mining operation: means all of the premises, facilities, and equipment used in the process of removing minerals, or minerals and incidental coal, by surface mining from a mining area in the creation of which mining area overburden or minerals, or minerals and incidental coal, are disturbed or removed, such surface mining area being located upon a single tract of land or upon two or more contiguous tracts of land. See Ohio Code 1514.01

After completion of an audit, the chief shall prepare a report that describes the general conditions of the surface mining operation, lists any hazardous conditions at the operation, lists any violations of the safety standards established in rules, and describes the nature and extent of any hazardous condition or violation found and the corresponding remedy for each hazardous condition or violation. The chief shall provide two copies of the report to the operator of the operation. The operator shall post one copy of the report at the operation for review by the employees of the operation.