Notwithstanding a political subdivision‘s prohibition, restriction, or other limitation on a mining use adopted after the establishment of the mining use, the rights of a mine operator with a vested mining use include the rights to:
Terms Used In Utah Code 17-41-502
Applicable legislative body: means :
(a)
with respect to a proposed agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials protection area:
(i)
the legislative body of the county in which the land proposed to be included in the relevant protection area is located, if the land is within the unincorporated part of the county; or
(ii)
the legislative body of the city or town in which the land proposed to be included in the relevant protection area is located; and
(b)
with respect to an existing agriculture protection area, industrial protection area, or critical infrastructure materials protection area:
(i)
the legislative body of the county in which the relevant protection area is located, if the relevant protection area is within the unincorporated part of the county; or
(ii)
the legislative body of the city or town in which the relevant protection area is located. See Utah Code 17-41-101
Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
Legislative: when used to describe the powers, duties, or functions of a county commission or council, refers to:
(a)
the power and duty to enact ordinances, levy taxes, and establish budgets; and
(b)
those powers, duties, and functions that, under constitutional and statutory provisions and through long usage and accepted practice and custom at the federal and state level, have come to be regarded as belonging to the legislative branch of government. See Utah Code 17-50-101
Mine operator: means a natural person, corporation, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, agent, or other organization or representative, either public or private, including a successor, assign, affiliate, subsidiary, and related parent company, that, as of January 1, 2019:
(a)
owns, controls, or manages a mining use under a large mine permit issued by the division or the board; and
(b)
has produced commercial quantities of a mineral deposit from the mining use. See Utah Code 17-41-101
Mining protection area: means land where a vested mining use occurs, including each surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that a mine operator with a vested mining use owns or controls. See Utah Code 17-41-101
New land: means surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that a mine operator gains ownership or control of, whether that land or mineral estate is included in the mine operator's large mine permit. See Utah Code 17-41-101
Political subdivision: means a county, city, town, school district, special district, or special service district. See Utah Code 17-41-101
Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of a judicial proceeding. See Utah Code 68-3-12.5
that existed or was conducted or otherwise engaged in before a political subdivision prohibits, restricts, or otherwise limits a mining use. See Utah Code 17-41-101
(a)
progress, extend, enlarge, grow, or expand the vested mining use to any surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that the mine operator owns or controls;
(b)
expand the vested mining use to any new land that:
(i)
is contiguous and related in mineralization to surface or subsurface land or a mineral estate that the mine operator already owns or controls;
(ii)
contains minerals that are part of the same mineral trend as the minerals that the mine operator already owns or controls; or
(iii)
is a geologic offshoot to surface or subsurface land or a mineral estate that the mine operator already owns or controls;
(c)
use, operate, construct, reconstruct, restore, extend, expand, maintain, repair, alter, substitute, modernize, upgrade, and replace equipment, processes, facilities, and buildings on any surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that the mine operator owns or controls;
(d)
increase production or volume, alter the method of mining or processing, and mine or process a different or additional mineral than previously mined or owned on any surface or subsurface land or mineral estate that the mine operator owns or controls; and
(e)
discontinue, suspend, terminate, deactivate, or continue and reactivate, temporarily or permanently, all or any part of the mining use.
(2)
(a)
As used in this Subsection (2), “applicable legislative body” means the legislative body of each:
(i)
county in whose unincorporated area the new land to be included in the vested mining use is located; and
(ii)
municipality in which the new land to be included in the vested mining use is located.
(b)
A mine operator with a vested mining use is presumed to have a right to expand the vested mining use to new land.
(c)
Before expanding a vested mining use to new land, a mine operator shall provide written notice:
(i)
of the mine operator’s intent to expand the vested mining use; and
(ii)
to each applicable legislative body.
(d)
(i)
An applicable legislative body shall:
(A)
hold a public meeting or hearing at its next available meeting that is more than 10 days after receiving the notice under Subsection (2)(c); and
(B)
provide reasonable, advance, written notice:
(I)
of:
(Aa)
the intended expansion of the vested mining use; and
(Bb)
the public meeting or hearing; and
(II)
to each owner of the surface estate of the new land.
(ii)
A public meeting or hearing under Subsection (2)(d)(i) serves to provide sufficient public notice of the mine operator’s intent to expand the vested mining use to the new land.
(e)
After the public meeting or hearing under Subsection (2)(d)(ii), a mine operator may expand a vested mining use to new land without any action by an applicable legislative body, unless there is clear and convincing evidence in the record that the expansion to new land will imminently endanger the public health, safety, and welfare.
(3)
If a mine operator expands a vested mining use to new land, as authorized under this section:
(a)
the mine operator’s rights under the vested mining use with respect to land on which the vested mining use occurs apply with equal force after the expansion to the new land; and
(b)
the mining protection area that includes land on which the vested mining use occurs is expanded to include the new land.
