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MINING-HISTORY  2000

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Subject:

mines and quarries- a legal definition

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Date:

Wed, 31 May 2000 15:03:02 EDT

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What is a mine ? Confused - you will be.
One of the considerable problems is that the concept or definition of a 
'mine' (and indeed 'quarry')  changed over time and in relation to the 
particular aspect of a 'mine' that was being considered.
Historically, the rule of thumb was that a mine had a working face not open 
to the sky whilst a quarry was anything else. What was being removed from the 
ground was irrelevant except that materials used mined  could still be 
'mined' even if the extraction site was open eg opencast coal mines. Hence 
ironstone could be quarried or mined depending on whether it was to be use as 
stone or iron ore. Salt 'mined' by the pressure solution method was neither 
mined nor quarried. A previous contributor has listed some of the case law 
(unfortunately without the correct referencing) which resulted to determine 
individual issues.

The difference between mines and quarries is significant in determining which 
set of rules applied and hence what sort of records were engendered. Quarries 
were subject to far less stringent legislation even after the 1894 Quarries 
Act.

>From the middle ages the Crown exercised a prerogative right not only to gold 
and silver mines, but also to any other mines - in practice those producing 
copper, tin, iron or lead - where gold and silver were found. In 1688 royal 
rights to the latter category were revoked by the important Mines Act of that 
year, but duties on the ores produced there continued to be levied in the 
same way as from the many mines in Crown ownership. The Exchequer, and then 
the auditors of Land Revenues and their successors, administered royal mines 
and quarries. 
No state control was exercised over mines and quarries in private hands until 
the mid-nineteenth century, when inspectors of mines were appointed under the 
Home Office. The Board of Trade had oversight of the industrial and economic 
aspects of mining, and the Mines Department, constituted in 1920, was under 
its aegis. In 1942 the new Ministry of Fuel and Power inherited Home Office 
and Mines Department functions in respect of mines and quarries, but other 
departments also continued to exercise a variety of powers: the Board of 
Inland Revenue, for example, collected mineral rights duties, the Board of 
Trade and the Ministry of Works retained responsibility for the quarrying of 
certain materials, the Ministry of Labour handled certain questions of 
industrial relations and health, safety and welfare, and the Ministry of 
National Insurance assessed and allocated compensation for industrial 
diseases. 
The Town and Country Planning Act 1947 brought in new controls over the 
extraction of minerals, involving a review of existing workings and the 
requirement of planning permission for new ones. The system was implemented 
by local authorities under the supervision of the Ministry of Town and 
Country Planning. 
Because of their economic and political significance, coal mines were kept 
closely under State control during the First World War. Coal deposits were 
brought into public ownership in 1938 and the whole industry was nationalised 
in 1946. 

Current legislation

Somewhat simplistically, mines have three aspects. Firstly, the planning 
process whereby they are allowed. Secondly , the actual operation of a mine 
and its associated machinery. Thirdly, the afteruse of a mine. A particular 
site can incorporate all three aspects at one time.
The current definition of a mine by the Town & Country Planning (General 
Permitted Development) Order 1995 s 1 (2) (c) mine = any site on which mining 
operations are carried out; mining operations = the winning and working of 
minerals in, or on or under land, whether by surface or underground working
mineral is not defined but the earlier Town & Country Planning Act 1990 s336 
does not define mines but defines minerals (1)(c) all substances of a kind 
normally worked for removal by underground or surface working except that it 
does not include peat cut for purposes other than sale. Other legislation 
excludes fluid materials and peat from this section.
However sites that received planning consent under the 1947 TCPA (IDO's) and 
which may not yet be in operation, come under the old legislation.
Once an extraction site is actually in operation it becomes subject to the 
Mines & Quarries Act and the vast array of environmental legislation.
It goes without saying that the above is a simplified explanation and that 
there are exceptions to every rule stated- after we are talking 'law' here !
 The current tendency of legislation is not to define mines but to 
incorporate them within a more general framework of abiotic resource 
management, which is the current EU/EC approach to the situation i.e. the 
effect on the environment is the primary concern.

the PRO website www.pro.gov.uk has an on-line guide to the records of mines 
and quarries as well as the on-line catalogue.
The above for necessities of space over simplifies matters
J Greenwood


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