Mines Act (Northern Ireland) 1969

17 Keeping of plans. N.I.

(1) Provision may be made by regulations for requiring that, in the case of every mine, the manager thereof shall keep at the office at the mine or at such other place as may be approved by[F1 the Executive]

(a) accurate plans of—

(i) all the workings in the mine (whether abandoned or not) or such of them as may be prescribed; and

(ii) all other workings (whether abandoned or not) within the boundaries of the mine or within the prescribed distance outside any boundary of the mine (measured from any point on the boundary in a straight line on any plane) or such of those workings as may be prescribed;

(b) accurate sections of the seams or veins for the time being worked in the mine and of all the strata overlying them;

being plans or, as the case may be, sections complying with such requirements as are imposed by or by virtue of subsection (2); and regulations made by virtue of this subsection may require the keeping of separate plans for different seams or veins or for the purpose of showing the system of ventilation in the workings or any other prescribed matter and require that plans be so kept as at any time to disclose the extent of workings delineated thereon both up to a day not earlier than such previous day as may be prescribed and up to a distance from their position at that time not greater than such as may be prescribed.

(2) Plans and sections required to be kept by virtue of subsection (1) shall be of durable material and be prepared in such form and manner as may be specified by rules made by the Ministry and on a scale not less than such as may be so specified, and any such plans (other than any whereof the main purpose is to show matters other than the extent of workings) shall show the position, in relation to objects on the surface, of the workings delineated on the plans and record such information as may be so specified with respect to orientation, contours, boundaries, faults, workings other than those delineated on the plans and any such other matters (whether similar to the matters aforesaid or not) as may be so specified.

(3) If, in the case of any mine, an inspector reports to[F1 the Executive] that it appears to him that any information which, by virtue of the foregoing provisions of this section, is required to be recorded on a plan required to be kept by the manager of the mine cannot be recorded thereon fully and clearly,[F1 the Executive] may serve on the manager of the mine a notice requiring him to keep at the office at the mine or at such other place as may be approved by[F1 the Executive] such supplementary plan or drawing specified in the notice as appears to[F1 the Executive] to be requisite for the purpose of recording that information fully and clearly.

(4) Regulations may provide—

(a) for requiring that plans, sections and drawings which by virtue of this section are required to be kept in the case of a mine, or any prescribed class thereof, shall be prepared by, or under the supervision of, the surveyor for the mine;

(b) for requiring, with respect to any such plan, section or drawing as aforesaid which has not been prepared by the surveyor for the mine, that the surveyor or such other person as may be prescribed shall take the prescribed steps for ensuring the accuracy thereof;

(c) for imposing upon the surveyor for a mine such duties as may be prescribed with respect to—

(i) the preservation and production of any prescribed documents, being documents prepared for the purpose of, or in connection with, the preparation or checking of any of the plans, sections and drawings which by virtue of this section are required to be kept in the case of the mine; and

(ii) the recording of the identity of the person who prepared any such document.

F1 SR 1999/150