Title 27 — Minerals, Oil and Gas

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 loca…

A. All operations shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter unless specifically exempted from a particular provision by its terms. B. The inspector shall enforce this chapter at all operations. C. Any operator or other person violating any provision of this chapter is gu…

A. When mining operations are scheduled to begin at any mine, the operator, owner, agent or other authorized representative shall give written notice to the inspector prior to commencement of mining. B. If operations do not commence within six months after the inspector receives …

A. The operator shall conduct his operation with due regard to health and safety. No operator shall fail to provide or use such safety devices and safeguards as are reasonably necessary to protect the life, health and safety of his employees. B. The operator, or some responsible …

Each employee shall make full use of all safeguards provided for his protection. Except for the purposes of repair, no employee or other person shall remove, displace, damage, destroy or carry off any safety device or safeguard furnished or provided, nor shall he interfere with t…

A. Every operation shall have adequate and proper first aid material as approved by the inspector which shall be available to all employees. B. No employee or other person shall remove material from first aid boxes or kits at any time except for replacement or use in case of inju…

A. If upon inspection it appears to the inspector that an operation from any cause is in a dangerous condition or its condition fails to comply with the requirements of law, the inspector shall at once serve written notice on the operator or the operator's agent in charge, statin…

When the inspector receives a complaint in writing signed by a person employed in an operation, stating that the operation in which he is working or part of it is being operated contrary to law or is dangerous to the health or lives of persons employed therein, and setting forth …

A. When a fatal accident occurs in an operation, the operator shall give immediate notice thereof by telephone or facsimile transmission, and after investigation report the facts in writing to the inspector. The inspector, upon receipt of such notice shall instruct the operator a…

The operator or person in charge of an operation shall keep at all times in the office of the operation and in the timekeeper's office in an accessible place and subject to inspection by all workmen and other interested persons at least one printed copy of this chapter.

Every operation where there appears to be any possibility of fire or serious hazards from fire shall provide sufficient fire protection. This shall include water supply with adequate pressure, fireplugs, hose and nozzles, and chemical, automatic chemical or water extinguishers, w…

A. All persons working in operations shall wear approved type head, foot and eye protection when in the work area and such other safety equipment as is designated by the operator. B. Equipment placed in an operation for the purpose of safety shall not be removed by anyone nor uti…

A. All moving parts of machinery to which workmen may be exposed shall be adequately guarded. Guards shall conform to the standards set forth in the rules. B. A guard or safety device necessary for safe operation which has been removed from any machine shall be replaced before th…

All electrical equipment shall be so maintained as to reduce the accident hazard so far as is reasonably possible. Such electrical equipment shall be installed, maintained and used according to standards set forth in the rules.

No person whose entry has not been authorized by the operator shall be allowed in any operation.

No intoxicating liquors or beverages and no narcotic drugs shall be permitted on any operation. No employee or other person under the influence of or believed to be under the influence of intoxicating liquors or narcotic drugs shall enter or be permitted to enter on any operation…

In areas where waste dumps, subsidence areas or tailings areas border on inhabited or public places, the roads from such places leading into such areas shall be blocked off and danger signs shall be placed at intervals along the perimeter of the areas. Any person recklessly remov…

A. Every mine operator or former mine operator or claimant who owns a mine or mining claim or possesses a mine or mining claim under lease, contract, permit or otherwise, who knowingly permits the existence on the premises of an abandoned or inactive mining shaft, portal, pit or …

A. Every person manufacturing, storing, selling, transferring or in any manner disposing of explosives or blasting agents, shall keep an accurate record of all such transactions and the date thereof, disclosing the amount of each explosive received, from whom received, when recei…

A. All explosives or blasting agents sold in the state shall be marked with the date of manufacture in the manner prescribed by the inspector. The inspector shall have authority to designate types of explosives or blasting agents which may not be sold or used after twelve months …

A. The inspector shall prescribe and promulgate rules in accordance with the provisions of this chapter pertaining to storing, transporting and using explosives and blasting agents in operations, including the character and location of magazines and other structures in which they…

Before firing blasting charges, the blasting crew shall clear the vicinity surrounding the blast site of all personnel, make provision to guard all means of access to the area, and give warning in every direction from which access may be had to the place where blasting is being d…

No person shall, whether working for himself or in the employ of another, while loading or charging a hole with explosives, use or employ a metal tamping bar, nor shall any person allow or permit the use of a metal tamping bar while loading or charging a hole by employees under h…

A. Every operator maintaining in a mine a vertical or incline shaft or an adit to a distance greater than one hundred feet and who has drifted a distance of two hundred feet or more and commenced to stope, shall provide and maintain to the hoisting shaft or opening through which …

Every mine shall have at least two outlets to the surface except as otherwise provided in this article. The outlets shall not lead to the surface in the same house and shall not at any point be closer to one another than thirty feet. If two outlets of a mine or part of them do no…

No structure shall be erected over an outlet of a mine except the headframe necessary for hoisting from a shaft and the hatch or door necessary for hoisting from a shaft and the hatch or door required to protect persons obligated to work at the top of a shaft from inclement weath…

A. Minimum standards for proper timbering or other ground support of any working place shall be suitable to the conditions of the mining system. When necessary such standards shall be set by the inspector after consultation with the operator involved. B. When any working place ha…

On every level of an underground mine where mechanical haulage is employed and in which there is not sufficient clearance for employees, unobstructed shelter areas in which employees can find safety from moving trains shall be provided at intervals of not more than two hundred fe…

Every shaft, winze, raise or incline, of slope steeper than forty degrees from the horizontal, and deeper than forty feet, through which persons are obliged to travel, shall be equipped with a suitable ladder-way.

A. Permanent ladder-ways shall be strong and firmly fastened, and shall be kept in good repair. B. In a vertical shaft the inspector may, in his discretion, by an order in writing, direct that the ladder be inclined at the most convenient angle which the space where the ladder is…

Stations or levels shall have a passageway around the working shaft so that crossing over the hoisting compartments may be avoided. Sumps shall be securely covered. At shaft stations a gate or guard rail shall be provided and kept in place across the shaft, except when a cage, sk…

When mechanical haulage is in an underground mine, the tracks, roadbeds, rails, joints, switches and frogs shall be constructed, installed, bonded and maintained in a manner consistent with the speed and type of haulage operation being conducted.

A. Stationary lights which are approved by the inspector shall be provided during working hours at all stations in shafts during the time such shafts are in actual use, and at all stations in levels where hoisting or hauling is conducted by means of machinery, and at night at all…

A. No person addicted to intoxicating liquors or drugs, or under eighteen years of age shall be employed as a hoisting engineer. B. All power hoisting machinery used in hoisting from or lowering employees and materials into mines, except for prospect shafts not exceeding three hu…

A. Hoisting machinery, cables and sheaves shall be inspected once every twenty-four hours by a competent person appointed by the operator for that purpose, and the person making the inspection shall immediately report in writing to the operator all defects found. B. Ropes or cabl…

A. It is unlawful for the operator of a mine to permit hoisting or lowering persons in a shaft deeper than three hundred feet except shafts in process of sinking, unless an iron-bonnetted safety cage equipped with gates at least five feet in height is used for hoisting and loweri…

A. Vertical shafts more than two hundred feet deep from which hoisting is done by a bucket shall be provided with suitable guides, and with the bucket a cross-head traveling upon the guides shall be provided. The height of the cross-head shall be at least one and one-half times i…

A. When tools, timber or other materials are loaded or hoisted in the shaft, the ends, if projecting above the top of the bucket, skip or other vehicle, shall be securely fastened to the hoisting rope or to the upper part of the vehicle, and tools, timber or other materials loade…

A. Persons engaged in sinking a shaft in which regular hoisting from an upper level is going on, shall be protected from the danger of falling material by a suitable covering, with a sufficient opening left in the covering for the passage of the bucket or conveyance used in the s…

A. At a mine where men are hoisted by mechanical means, a hoistman charged with the hoisting shall be kept on duty at the hoist at all times when men are underground, except as provided in subsection B. B. The requirements of subsection A shall not apply to an automatic hoist equ…

A. Every shaft and each compartment thereof used for hoisting which exceeds fifty feet in depth, and not exempted in writing by the inspector, shall be provided with an efficient means of interchanging distinct and definite signals between the top of the shaft and the lowest leve…

A. The following signal code shall be used in all mines: 1 bell, stop immediately if in motion. 1 bell, hoist muck, after preliminary signal for hoisting muck. 2 bells, lower. 3 bells, raise. 3 -1 bells, hoist men. 3 -2 bells, lower men. 4 bells, release cage, skip, or bucket to …

A. When advancing a drift, adit, level or incline toward a mine working that appears to be filled with water, a bore hole shall be kept at least twenty feet in advance of the breast of the drive and also, if necessary, in directions laterally from the course of the drive. The wor…

A. When adjacent or contiguous mines, opened, developed and worked upon the same or upon separate lodes have a common ingress of water, or, by reason of subterranean communication of water, have a common drainage, the operators of the mines shall provide for disposal of their pro…

A. When an action is commenced to recover the costs and expenses of draining lodes or mines, the court shall grant an order allowing plaintiff to inspect the lodes or mines claimed to have been drained upon application and affidavit that the inspection is necessary for proper pre…

A. Owners or operators shall place warning signs or other warning notices at the entrance to working places deemed dangerous, and at the entrance to old or abandoned workings of active mines, and no person other than those authorized by the operator shall remove or go beyond a ca…

No person shall knowingly: 1. Injure or destroy any equipment or machinery of a mine, nor, unless authorized so to do, obstruct, open, close or change the position of a ventilation door, brattice, or airway, or handle or disturb any part of the machinery of the hoisting engine of…

The underground use of any internal combustion engine is declared unlawful, unless after application filed with the inspector he approves the equipment for safe use in the type of underground work for which the application is filed and finds that the atmospheric conditions in the…

When ordered by the inspector, the operator of every underground mine shall make and maintain a reasonably accurate map of the workings of the mine. At least once every six months or oftener if necessary, the operator shall make alterations or additions to the map showing excavat…

Mucking machines, sorters and other loading devices shall be maintained and operated in a safe manner.