In this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. "Abandoned mine" means a mine where mining operations have been permanently terminated or the operator has complied with section 27-303, subsection C or for which no owner, operator or other claimant of record can be located for a deserted mine site.
2. "Active mine" means a mining operation conducting mining activities on any lands.
3. "Claim" means the portion of mining ground held under federal and local law by one claimant or association, by virtue of one location and record. It includes mining claims and sites deemed abandoned under the federal land policy and management act of 1976 (P.L. 94-579; 90 Stat. 2743).
4. "Excavations" or "workings" means any or all parts of a mine excavated or being excavated, including shafts, tunnels, drifts, crosscuts, adits, entries, winzes, raises, stopes, open cuts, and all working places, whether abandoned or in use.
5. "Inactive mine" means a mining operation not conducting mining for more than six months or where mining operations have been temporarily suspended or the operator has complied with section 27-303, subsection C.
6. "Inspector" means the state mine inspector and except in article 7 of this chapter his deputies.
7. "Mill" means any ore mill, concentrator, sampling works, crushing, grinding or screening plant, appurtenant buildings, shops or storage or loading facility used at and in connection with any mine.
8. "Mine" means all lands containing excavations, underground passageways, shafts, tunnels and workings, structures, facilities, equipment, machines or other property including impoundments, retention dams, tailings and waste dumps, on the surface or underground, used in, to be used in or resulting from the work of extracting minerals or other materials, excluding hydrocarbons. Mine includes that portion of an operation which mixes rock, sand, gravel or similar materials with water and cement or with asphalt, provided that the operation is either physically connected to the mine or is so interdependent with the mine as to form one integral enterprise. Mine includes that portion of an operation that is being reclaimed pursuant to chapter 5 or 6 of this title.
9. "Miner" means a person who works in a mine.
10. "Mining" means those activities conducted to develop or extract materials from a mine including on-site transportation, concentrating, milling, leaching, smelting or other processing of ores or other materials. Mining includes mined land reclamation activities regulated pursuant to chapter 5 or 6 of this title.
11. "Open pit" means any mine operated on the surface of the earth, including quarries, but excluding sand and gravel operations.
12. "Operation" means a mine, mill, smelter, sand and gravel plant or pyrometallurgical or hydrometallurgical operation.
13. "Operator" means a natural person, corporation, partnership association, agent, governmental entity or other public or private organization or representative owning, controlling or managing a mine.
14. "Sand and gravel operation" means any operation the principal product of which is sand, gravel, pumice or any other common variety of material.
15. "Smelter" means any establishment used for the purpose of pyrometallurgical operations and appurtenant buildings, shops, facilities for the production of steam or electrical power, or equipment used in conjunction with any of the above.
16. "Surface mining" means mining conducted on the surface of the land including open pit, strip, dredging, quarrying, leaching, surface evaporation operations, reworking abandoned tailings and dumps and related activities.
17. "Underground mine" means a mine in which minerals or other material is extracted from beneath the surface by means of shafts, tunnels or other openings.