§ 208.2 — Definitions

Iowa § 208.2

• Jurisdiction: Iowa
• Title V: AGRICULTURE
• Ch. 208: MINES

Text

When used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
1. “Administrator” means the administrator of the division or a designee.
2. “Affected land” means the area of land from which overburden has been removed or
upon which overburden has been deposited or land which has otherwise been disturbed,
changed, influenced, or altered in any way in the course of mining, including processing and
stockpile areas but not including roads.
3. “Division” means the division of soil conservation and water quality created within the
department of agriculture and land stewardship pursuant to section 159.5.
4. “Exploration” means the mining of limited amounts of any mineral to determine the
location, quantity, or quality of the mineral deposit.
5. “Highwall”meanstheunexcavatedfaceofexposedoverburdenandmineralinasurface
mine.
6. “Mine” or “mine site” means a site where mining is being conducted or has been
conducted in the past.
7. “Mineral” means gypsum, clay, stone, sand, gravel, or other ores or mineral solids,
except coal.
8. “Mining” means the excavation of gypsum, clay, stone, sand, gravel, or other ores or
mineral solids, except coal, for sale or for processing or consumption in the regular operation
of a business and shall include surface mining and underground mining.
9. “Mining operation” means activities conducted by an operator on a mine site relative

to the excavation of minerals and shall include disturbing overburden, excavation, and
processing of minerals, stockpiling and removal of minerals from a site, and all reclamation
activities conducted on a mine site.
10. “Operator” means any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or political subdivision
engaged in and controlling a mining operation.
11. “Overburden” means all of the earth and other materials which lie above natural
mineral deposits and includes all earth and other materials disturbed from their natural
state in the process of mining.
12. “Pit floor” or “quarry floor” means the lower limit of a surface excavation to extract
minerals.
13. “Political subdivision” means any county, district, city, or other public agency within
the state of Iowa.
14. “Reclamation” means the process of restoring disturbed lands to the premined uses of
the lands or other productive uses.
15. “Surface mining” means mining by removing the overburden lying above the natural
deposits and excavating directly from the natural deposits exposed, or by excavating directly
from deposits lying exposed in their natural state and shall include dredge operations
conducted in or on natural waterways or artificially created waterways within the state.
16. “Topsoil” means the natural medium located at the land surface with favorable
characteristics for the growth of vegetation.
17. “Undergroundmining”meansminingbydiggingorconstructingaccesstunnels, adits,
ramps, or shafts and excavating directly from the natural mineral deposits exposed.

Legislative History

[C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §1244; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, §82.27; C71, 73, §82.27, 83A.2; C75, 77, 79, 81, §83A.2]