[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 43, Volume 2]

[Revised as of October 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 43CFR3800]



[Page 748-749]

 

                    TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR

 

    CHAPTER II--BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

 

PART 3800_MINING CLAIMS UNDER THE GENERAL MINING LAWS--Table of Contents

 

     Subpart 3802_Exploration and Mining, Wilderness Review Program

 

Sec.  3802.0-5  Definitions.



    As used in this subpart, the term:

    (a) Reclamation, which shall be commenced, conducted and completed 

as soon after disturbance as feasible without undue physical 

interference with mining operations, means:

    (1) Reshaping of the lands disturbed and affected by mining 

operations to the approximate original contour or to an appropriate 

contour considering the surrounding topography as determined by the 

authorized officer;

    (2) Restoring such reshaped lands by replacement of topsoil; and

    (3) Revegetating the lands by using species previously occurring in 

the area to provide a vegetative cover at least to the point where 

natural succession is occuring.

    (b) Environment means surface and subsurface resources both tangible 

and intangible, including air, water, mineral, scenic, cultural, 

paleontological, vegetative, soil, wildlife, fish and wilderness values.

    (c) Wilderness Study Area means a roadless area of 5,000 acres or 

more or roadless islands which have been found through the Bureau of 

Land Management wilderness inventory process to have wilderness 

characteristics (thus having the potential of being included in the 

National Wilderness Preservation System), and which will be subjected to 

intensive analysis through the Bureau's planning system, and through 

public review to determine wilderness suitability, and is not yet the 

subject of a Congressional decision regarding its designation as 

wilderness.

    (d) Impairment of suitability for inclusion in the Wilderness System 

means taking actions that cause impacts, that cannot be reclaimed to the 

point of being substantially unnoticeable in the area as a whole by the 

time the Secretary is scheduled to make a recommendation to the 

President on the suitability of a wilderness study area for inclusion in 

the National Wilderness Preservation System or have degraded wilderness 

values so far, compared with the area's values for other purposes, as to 

significantly constrain the Secretary's recommendation with respect to 

the area's suitability for preservation as wilderness.

    (e) Mining claim means any unpatented mining claim, millsite, or 

tunnel site authorized by the U.S. mining laws.

    (f) Mining operations means all functions, work, facilities, and 

activities in connection with the prospecting, development, extraction, 

and processing of mineral deposits and all uses reasonably incident 

thereto including the construction and maintenance of means of access to 

and across lands subject to these regulations, whether the operations 

take place on or off the claim.

    (g) Operator means a person conducting or proposing to conduct 

mining operations.

    (h) Authorized officer means any employee of the Bureau of Land 

Management to whom has been delegated the authority to perform the 

duties described in this subpart.

    (i) Wilderness inventory means an evaluation conducted under BLM 

wilderness inventory procedures which results in a written description 

and map showing those lands that meet the wilderness criteria 

established under section 603(a) of the Federal Land Policy and 

Management Act.

    (j) Manner and degree means that existing operations will be defined 

geographically by the area of active development and the logical 

adjacent (not necessarily contiguous) continuation of



[[Page 749]]



the existing activity, and not necessarily by the boundary of a 

particular, claim or lease, and in some cases a change in the kind of 

activity if the impacts from the continuation and change of activity are 

not of a significantly different kind than the existing impacts. 

However, the significant measure for these activities is still the 

impact they are having on the wilderness potential of an area. It is the 

actual use of the area, and not the existence of an entitlement for use, 

which is the controlling factor. In other words, an existing activity, 

even if impairing, may continue to be expanded in an area or progress to 

the next stage of development so long as the additional impacts are not 

significantly different from those caused by the existing activity. In 

determining the manner and degree of existing operations, a rule of 

reason will be employed.

    (k) Valid existing right means a valid discovery had been made on a 

mining claim on October 21, 1976, and continues to be valid at the time 

of exercise.

    (l) Undue and unnecessary degradation means impacts greater than 

those that would normally be expected from an activity being 

accomplished in compliance with current standards and regulations and 

based on sound practices, including use of the best reasonably available 

technology.

    (m) Substantially unnoticeable means something that either is so 

insignificant as to be only a very minor feature of the overall area or 

is not distinctly recognizable by the average visitor as being manmade 

or man-caused because of age, weathering or biological change.