                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

 REVIEW OF OPERATIONS PLAN AND RECLAMATION PROVISION BY DIRECTOR; ISSUANCE OF
PERMIT (§ 45.2-1209)

A. Upon receipt of an operations plan acceptable to the Director and bond as
required by this article, the Director shall review the plan. If the Director
approves the plan, he shall issue a permit. If the Director disapproves the
plan, he shall furnish the applicant with his written objections thereto and his
required amendments. Until the applicant amends his operations plan to meet the
Director&#8217;s reasonable objections and files a satisfactory amended plan
with the Director, no permit shall be issued.

B. In reviewing the operations plan, if the Director finds that the operation
will constitute a hazard to the public safety or welfare, or that a reasonable
degree of reclamation or proper drainage control is not feasible, he may
disapprove the permit application. However, the Director may approve the permit
after deleting the areas from the permit application that he holds in his
findings to be objectionable.

C. The Director shall issue the permit unless he finds that the applicant has
had control or has had common control with a person, partnership, association,
trust, or corporation that has had a mining permit revoked or bond or other
security forfeited for failure to reclaim lands as required by law, in which
event no permit shall be issued. However, if an operator who forfeited a bond
pays, within 30 days of notice and demand by the Director, the cost of
reclamation in excess of the amount of the forfeited bond, or if any bond is
forfeited and the amount forfeited is equal to or greater than the cost of
reclamation, such operator shall then become eligible for another permit.

HISTORY: 1968, c. 734, § 45.1-184; 1974, c. 312; 1977, c. 312; 2021, Sp. Sess.
I, c. 387.