US Laws, Codes, Statutes & Cases

§22A-2-5. Unused and abandoned parts of mine.

(a) In any mine, all workings which are abandoned after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred seventy-one, shall be sealed or ventilated. If such workings are sealed, the sealing shall be done with incombustible material in a manner prescribed by the director, and one or more of the seals of every sealed area shall be fitted with a pipe and cap or valve to permit the sampling of gases and measuring of hydrostatic pressure behind the seals. For the purpose of this section, working within a panel shall not be deemed to be abandoned until such panel is abandoned.
(b) Air that has passed through an abandoned area or an area which is inaccessible or unsafe for inspection shall not be used to ventilate any working place in any working mine, unless permission is granted by the director with unanimous agreement of the technical and mine safety review committee. Air that has been used to ventilate seals shall not be used to ventilate any working place in any working mine. No air which has been used to ventilate an area from which the pillars have been removed shall be used to ventilate any working place in a mine, except that such air, if it does not contain 0.25 volume percent or more of methane, may be used to ventilate enough advancing working places immediately adjacent to the line of retreat to maintain an orderly sequence of pillar recovery on a set of entries. Before sealed areas, temporary or permanent, are reopened, the director shall be notified.