Interpretation

(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires“authorised officer”, in relation to any provision of this Act, means a person designated as such under section 6 (2), for the purposes of that provision; “body corporate” means a company or a corporation; “claim” means a claim registered under Part IV; “claim area” means an area of land subject to a claim; CAP. 250. “company” means a corporate body incorporated under the Companies Act; 11 “conditions” includes terms, limitations and stipulations; “conserve” means, in relation to natural resources, to protect, improve and use natural resources in accordance with principles that will ensure the highest sustainable benefit in terms of economic, social, cultural and aesthetic values; “construction minerals” means stones, gravel, sand or clay used for constructing buildings, roads, dams, concrete structures, and similar works, the making of blocks, bricks and tiles, but does not include materials mined for the production of cement, nor ornamental stone such as marble, coloured granites and the like; “corporation” means a corporate body incorporated in or outside Belize, whether by an Act or otherwise, but does not include a “drilling” means the perforation of the earth’s surface otherwise than by pitting, trenching or sinking a shaft, whether the hole is vertical, inclined or horizontal, and includes all operations for preventing the collapse of the sides of the hole or for preventing the hole from becoming filled with extraneous matter (including water); “exclusive prospecting licence” means a licence granted under section 25; “holder” means– (a) in relation to a mineral right, the person whose name is for the time being recorded pursuant to section 56 or 58, as being the older of the mineral right; or (b) in relation to a claim, the person whose name is for the time being registered pursuant to section 74; 12 “in default” means in breach of any provision of this Act or of any condition of a non-exclusive prospecting licence or a claim; “industrial minerals” means basalt, clay, dolomite, granite, gypsum, laterite, limestone, marble, sand, sandstone or salt, used for agricultural, building, road making or industrial purposes in Belize, and includes such other minerals as may be prescribed; “Inspector” means the Inspector of Mines and Minerals appointed pursuant to section 5; “land” includes land beneath water; “mine”, when used as a noun, means any place, excavation or working in or on which any operation connected with mining is carried on, together with all buildings, premises, erections and appliances belonging or appertaining thereto, above or below the ground, for the purpose of winning, treating or preparing minerals, obtaining or extracting any mineral or metal by any mode or method or for the purpose of dressing mineral ores; “mine”, when used as a verb, means to win minerals and includes any operations directly or indirectly necessary for or incidental to mining operations; “mineral” means any substance, whether in solid, liquid or gaseous form, occurring naturally in or on the earth, formed by, or subject to, a geological process, but does not include– (a) water, not being water taken from a borehole, well, excavation or natural saltpan for the extraction therefrom of a substance in solution therein and of commercial value; (b) soil, not being taken from the earth for the extraction therefrom of a substance of commercial value contained therein or for the manufacture therefrom of a product of commercial value; or (c) petroleum; “mineral right” means a reconnaissance licence, an exclusive prospecting licence or a mining licence; “mining area” means an area in respect of which a mining licence has been granted; “mining licence” means a licence granted under section 37; “mining operations” means operations carried out in the course “Minister” means the Minister for the time being responsible for mines and minerals; “monument” means any structure or building erected by man or any natural feature transformed or worked by man, or the remains or any part thereof, whether upon land or in any river, stream or watercourse or under the territorial waters of the country, that has been in existence for one hundred years or more; “non-exclusive prospecting licence” means a licence issued under section 71; “occupier”, in relation to land, means the holder of a lease, location ticket or permit to occupy; “owner”, in relation to land, includes a lessee; “prospect” means intentionally to search for minerals and includes the determination of their extent and economic value; “prospecting area” means the area of land subject to an 14 “prospecting operations” means operations carried out in the course of prospecting; CAP. 191. “public land” has the meaning assigned to it in the National Lands Act; “quarry” means any place, not being a mine, where quarry material or quarry mineral has been removed or is being removed, whether by excavation or otherwise, to supply material for construction, commercial, industrial or manufacturing purposes; “quarry material” means rock, stone, sand, including sea sand, marl, gravel, clay, fill and limestone, where such material does not contain any minerals in economically workable quantities; “quarry mineral” means gypsum and any other substance that the Minister, by notice published in the Gazette, declares to be a quarry mineral; “radioactive mineral” means a mineral which contains by weight at least one twentieth of one per centum (0.05 per centum) of uranium or thorium or any combination thereof, and includes– (a) monazite sand and other ore containing thorium; and (b) carnotite, pitchblende and other ore containing uranium; “reconnaissance area” means an area of land subject to a “reconnaissance licence” means a licence granted under section 16; “reconnaissance operations” means the search for minerals by geophysical surveys, geochemical surveys and photogeological 15 surveys or other remote sensing techniques and surface geology in connection therewith; “Register” means the Register referred to in section 56 and elsewhere in this Act; “regulations” means the regulations made under section 119; “reserved minerals” means all such minerals obtainable from identified resources which can be extracted economically with available technology; “salt” means– (a) sodium chloride or sodium carbonate, occurring naturally whether individually or as a mixture; (b) any naturally occurring salt or mixture of salts, soluble in water, which may be prescribed; “surface rights” include the right of the owner/lawful occupier over the crops, trees, grass, other bushes or plants and structures of any kind whatever standing on the land but does not include the right to dig the land for any mineral, excluding water; and “working for profit” means producing a mineral for use or sale. (2) In this Act, a reference to minerals in any land includes a reference to minerals on or under the land. (3) In this Act– (a) a reference to the conditions of a mineral right is a reference to the conditions on which the mineral right is granted, as from time to time varied; and 16 (b) a reference to the conditions of a claim is a reference to the conditions on which the claim is, for the time being, registered. (4) In this Act, a reference to a programme of reconnaissance operations, prospecting operations, or mining operations, in relation to the holder of a mineral right, is a reference to operations of that kind which the holder is, from time to time, required to carry on.