An Act to require an alternate approval process for an operation that extracts materials by the use of explosives.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of South Dakota:

Section 1. That § 45-6-65 be AMENDED:

45-6-65. An operator shall obtain a license to mine any of the following materials, provided they are extracted by means that do not include the use of explosives:

(1) Sand;

(2) Gravel;

(3) Rock to be crushed and used in construction;

(4) Pegmatite minerals;

(5) Limestone; and

(6) Iron ore, gypsum, shale, pozzolan, and other materials used in the process of making cement or lime.

The operator shall comply with the requirements of §§ 45-6-68, 45-6-69, 45-6-71, and 45-6-72, for each site to be mined. Failure to comply with these requirements for each site mined constitutes mining without a license.

The fee for the license is one hundred dollars annually, for each mine site authorized under the license. The department shall forward any fees collected under this section to the state treasurer for deposit in the environment and natural resources fee fund established in § 1-41-23.

Section 2. That a NEW SECTION be added to chapter 45-6:

Any operator that uses explosives in its mining operation must report its use of explosives to the department within ninety days of the date this Act becomes effective.

Use of explosives by any contractor, subcontractor, or agent of the operator is considered use by the operator for purposes of this section.

In order to mine any of the materials listed in this section with the use of explosives, on or after July 1, 2026, the operator of any new or expanding mining operation shall obtain a permit under chapter 45-6B. Any operator that fails to obtain the required permit is subject to the penalties provided in chapter 45-6B.

If, for good cause, an operator is unable to obtain a permit by July 1, 2026, the operator may request that the department grant a six-month extension of the license while the operator is applying for a permit.

Operators who mine with the use of explosives under permits granted under chapter 45-6 must obtain permits under chapter 45-6B. The department shall implement a schedule for operators to transition to permits under chapter 45-6B starting July 1, 2026. The schedule may allow twenty percent of the operators in each of the consecutive five years from the date this Act becomes effective to transition to the new permits.

Section 3. That § 45-6B-3 be AMENDED:

45-6B-3. Terms used in this chapter mean:

(1) "Abandoned mined lands," lands that were mined for noncoal minerals and materials and for which there is no continuing reclamation responsibility or responsibility for other remedial action under state or federal laws;

(2) "Affected land," land from which overburden is to be or has been removed and land upon which overburden, waste rock, mine spoil, or mill tailings is to be or has been deposited; land which is disturbed by the building of access roads, railroad loops, warehouses, storage areas, or other support facilities for the purpose of mining or milling; and land affected by surface subsidence, unstable slopes, and other surface effects caused by underground mine workings;

(3) "Aquifer," a water‑bearing bed or stratum of permeable rock, sand, or gravel capable of yielding usable quantities of water to wells or springs;

(4) "Black Hills," Lawrence County south of Interstate Highway 90, Meade County west and south of Interstate Highway 90 and Pennington and Custer Counties west of South Dakota Highway 79;

(5) "Board," the Board of Minerals and Environment;

(6) "Department," the Department of Environment Agriculture and Natural Resources;

(7) "Development," the work performed in relation to a deposit, following the exploration required to prove minerals are in existence in commercial quantities but before production activities, aimed at preparing the site for mining, defining further the ore deposit by drilling or other means, conducting pilot plant operations, constructing roads or ancillary facilities;

(8) "Life of the mine permit," a permit to conduct a mining operation which is in effect if:

(a) An operator continues to engage in the extraction of minerals and complies with the provisions of this chapter;

(b) Mineral reserves are shown by the operator to remain in the mining operation and the operator plans to, or does, temporarily cease production for one hundred eighty days or more if the operator files a notice thereof with the board stating the reasons for nonproduction, a plan for ceasing production for one hundred eighty days or more if the operator files a notice thereof with the board stating the reasons for nonproduction, a plan for the resumption of production, and the measures taken to comply with reclamation and other necessary activities as established by the board to maintain the mine in a nonproducing state. The requirement of a notice of temporary cessation does not apply to operators who resume operating within one year and have included, in their permit applications, a statement following the exploration required to prove minerals are in existence in that the affected lands are to be used for less than one hundred eighty days per year;

(c) Production is resumed within five years of the date production ended, or the operator files a report requesting an extension of the period of temporary cessation of production with the board stating the reasons for the continuation of nonproduction and those factors necessary to, and the operator's plans for, resumption of production. A temporary cessation of production may not be continued for more than ten years without terminating the operation and fully complying with the reclamation requirements of this chapter.

A life of the mine permit includes that period of time after cessation of production necessary to complete reclamation of affected lands, until the board releases, in writing, the operator from further reclamation obligations regarding the affected land, declares the mining operation terminated, and releases the surety thereon;

(9) "Milling," the beneficiation of a mined material from its natural occurrence in ore;

(10) "Mineral," a substance with economic value, whether organic or inorganic, that can be extracted from the earth, other than the following: water, oil, gas, sand, gravel, or rock to be crushed and used in construction, pegmatite minerals, or limestone, but excluding the following materials if extracted by methods that do not include the use of explosives:

(a) Water;

(b) Oil;

(c) Gas;

(d) Sand;

(e) Gravel;

(f) Rock to be crushed and used in construction;

(g) Pegmatite minerals; and

(h) Limestone, sand, gypsum, shale, or iron ore used in the process of making cement;

(11) "Mining operation," the development or extraction of a mineral from its natural occurrence on affected land. The term includes surface mining and surface operation, in situ mining, the reprocessing of tailings piles, the disposal of refuse from underground mining, milling and processing located on the land described in the application for a mining permit, and stand-alone milling and processing facilities utilizing chemical or biological leaching agents, and the extraction of any material by the use of explosives. The term does not include extraction of sand, gravel, or rock to be crushed and used in construction, exploration activities, bulk sampling, the exploration and extraction of natural petroleum in a liquid or gaseous state by means of wells or pipe, borrow excavation for embankments, or the extraction of geothermal resources;

(12) "Operator," any person, firm, partnership, limited liability company, association, or corporation or any department, division or agency of federal, state, county, or municipal government engaged in or controlling a mining operation;

(13) "Overburden," all of the earth and other materials which are disturbed or removed, in the original state, or as it exists after removal from its natural state in the process of surface mining;

(14) "Reclamation," the employment during and after a mining operation of procedures reasonably designed to minimize as much as practicable the disruption from the mining operation and to provide for the rehabilitation of affected land through the rehabilitation of plant cover, soil stability, water resources, or other measures appropriate to the subsequent beneficial use of such mined and reclaimed lands;

(15) "Surface mining," the mining of minerals by removing the overburden lying above such deposits and mining directly from the deposits thereby exposed. The term includes mining directly from such deposits where there is no overburden and such practices as open cut mining, open pit mining, strip mining, placer mining, quarrying, and dredging;

(16) "Surface mining disturbed land," land from which overburden has been removed, land upon which overburden, waste rock, mine spoil, or mill tailings have been deposited, land mined which has no overburden, heap leach pads, and process ponds;

(17) "Tailings," the discharged valueless product of a beneficiation process.