Okla. Admin. Code § 460:10-1-5
The following words and terms, when used in this Chapter, shall have the following meaning, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Affected land" means the area of land from which the overburden shall have been removed, or upon which overburden or refuse has deposited or both.
"Box cut" means the first open cut in strip mining which results in the placing of overburden on unmined land adjacent to the initial pit and outside the area to be mined.
"Consolidated material" means material of sufficient hardness or ability to resist weathering and outside the area to be mined.
"Department" means the office of the Chief Mine Inspector, herein called the Department of Mines and Mining, or such department, bureau, or commission as may be lawfully succeed to the powers and duties of such department.
"Director" means the Chief Mine Inspector of the State of Oklahoma or such officer, bureau or commission as may lawfully succeed to the powers and duties of such department.
"Limited use permit" means a restricted, non-coal surface mining and reclamation permit limited to two (2) acres and limited to a one (1) year term.
"Mine" means an underground or surface excavation and development with or without shafts, slopes, drifts or tunnels for the exaction of minerals with hoisting or haulage equipment and appliances for the extraction thereof, and shall embrace any and all of the land or property of the plant, and the surface and underground, that contribute directly or indirectly to the mining properties, concentration or handling of minerals.
"Minerals" means asphalt, clay, copper, granite, gravel, gypsum, lead, marble, salt, sand, shale, stone, tripoli, volcanic ash and zinc. or any other substance commonly recognized as a mineral, and includes ores or rock containing any such substances, but excludes oil, gas, and any other mineral found naturally in a liquid or gaseous state.
"Mining" means the extraction of minerals from natural deposits by any method or process.
"Operator" means any person, partnership, firm or corporation engaged in and controlling a mining operation.
"Overburden" means all of the earth and other materials which lie above natural deposits of minerals, and also means such earth and other materials disturbed from their natural state in the process of surface mining.
"Peak" means a projecting point of overburden created in the surface mining process.
"Pit" means a tract of land from which overburden or minerals have been or are being removed in the process of surface mining.
"Reclamation" means conditioning affected land to make it suitable for any uses or purposes consistent with those enumerated in 45 O.S. Section 725 .
"Refuse" means all waste material directly connected with the production, cleaning, or preparation of minerals which have been mined by either underground or surface miningmethod.
"Ridge" means a lengthening elevation of overburden created in the surface mining process.
"Strip mining" means those mining operations carried out by removing the overburden lying above natural deposits of minerals, and mining directly from such natural deposits thereby exposed, but excludes augur mining, quarrying, dredging, pumping or the use of hydraulic methods.
"Surface mining" means those mining operations carried out on the surface, including strip mining. auger mining, quarrying, dredging, pumping, or the use of hydraulic methods. Surface mining shall not include excavation or removal of shale, sand, sand, gravel, clay, rock, or other materials in remote areas by an owner or holder of a possessory interest in land for the primary purpose of construction or maintenance of access roads to or on such landowner's property. Surface mining shall not include excavation or grading conducted for forming on-site road construction or other on-site construction , or the exaction of minerals other than anthracite and bituminous coal by a landowner for noncommercial use from land owned or leased the landowner; nor mining for commercial purpose conducted under a limited use permit issued by the Department; nor the extraction of sand, grave, rock, stone, earth or fill from borrow pits for highway construction purpose, so long as such work is performed under a bond, contract and specifications which substantially provide for and require reclamation of the area affected; nor to the handling, processing or storage of slag on the premises of a manufacturer as part of the manufacturing process. Surface mining shall not include the surface mining of coal or the surface effects of underground coal mining.
"Ton" means 2000 pounds avoirdupois (.90718 metric ton).
"Underground mining" means those mining operations carried out beneath the surface by means of shafts, slopes, tunnels, or other openings leading to the mineral being mined and the extraction of the mineral through such shafts, slopes, tunnels or their openings.
Okla. Admin. Code § 460:10-1-5