Permit Approval — Required Findings

  1. Law
  2. Tennessee Code
  3. Mines and Mining
  4. Strip and Open Pit Mines
  5. Coal Surface Mining Act of 1987
  6. Permit Approval — Required Findings

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No permit application shall be approved unless the applicant affirmatively demonstrates, and the commissioner finds in writing, on the basis of the information set forth in the application or from information otherwise available which will be documented in the approval and made available to the applicant, that:

  1. The permit application is accurate and complete and that the applicant has complied with all the requirements of this part and any regulations issued pursuant to this part;
  2. The applicant has demonstrated that reclamation as required by this part and any regulations issued pursuant to this part can be accomplished under the reclamation plan contained in the permit application;
  3. No part of the operation would constitute a hazard to a dwelling house, public building, school, church, cemetery, commercial or institutional building, public road, stream, lake, reservoir, water wells, officially designated scenic areas or other private or public property;
  4. The area proposed to be mined for coal is not included within an area designated unsuitable for coal surface mining pursuant to the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (30 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq.), or is not within an area under study for such designation in an administrative proceeding commenced pursuant to such law (unless the operator demonstrates that prior to January 1, 1977, the applicant has made substantial legal and financial commitments in relation to a mining operation for which he is applying for a permit);
  5. The owner or owners of the coal to be mined are identified;
    1. The source of the operator's legal right to enter and mine the coal on the land affected by the permit and whether that right is the subject of pending court litigation are identified;
    2. There is evidence of the operator's legal right to surface mine the minerals on the land affected by the permit. If the surface estate has been severed from the mineral estate, such evidence may be provided by either:
      1. A deed, lease, or other document which severs the mineral rights and expressly permits the removal of minerals by surface mining or a certified extract of the appropriate provisions of such documents; or
      2. A deed, lease or conveyance which severs the mineral rights without specific provisions for surface mining and an accompanying affidavit by the current surface estate owner agreeing to the removal of such minerals by surface mining; and
  7. In cases where the private mineral estate has been severed from the private surface estate, the applicant has submitted to the commissioner:
    1. The written consent of the surface owner to the extraction of coal by surface mining methods;
    2. A conveyance that expressly grants or reserves the right to extract the coal by surface mining methods; or
    3. If the conveyance does not expressly grant the right to extract coal by surface mining methods, the surface-subsurface legal relationship shall be determined by law; provided, that nothing in this part shall be construed to authorize the commissioner to adjudicate property rights disputes.


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