Bond Forfeiture

DMRM administers a program to reclaim areas where bond has been forfeited on current mine permits. These are areas that have been mined but not reclaimed to current standards by the mine operator.

In this program, DMRM collects the forfeited bond monies from the mine operator or from the operator's surety bond company. DMRM then contracts with a third party to have the areas reclaimed.

In addition to forfeited bond monies, for each ton of coal or mineral mined there is a severance tax collected and deposited into DMRM's accounts to supplement the per-acre bond amount. This money is used when the cost to reclaim exceeds the amount of monies forfeited for a particular operation.

Bond rates for the coal regulatory program are $2,500/acre and industrial minerals bond rates are $500/acre. The average cost of reclamation since 2000 has been $8,799/acre.

In 2007, the Forfeiture Program completed the design of 14 projects. During the same period, construction was completed on 10 forfeited permits at a cost of $1,045,386. This construction resulted in the reclamation of 102 acres of land.