North Dakota Code 38-12-01 – Definitions
As used in this chapter, unless the context otherwise requires:
Terms Used In North Dakota Code 38-12-01
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Fiduciary: A trustee, executor, or administrator.
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Lease: A contract transferring the use of property or occupancy of land, space, structures, or equipment in consideration of a payment (e.g., rent). Source: OCC
- Person: means an individual, organization, government, political subdivision, or government agency or instrumentality. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Process: means a writ or summons issued in the course of judicial proceedings. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Property: includes property, real and personal. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the territories. See North Dakota Code 1-01-49
- Trustee: A person or institution holding and administering property in trust.
1. “Commission” means the industrial commission of the state of North Dakota.
2. “Extraction facility” means any well or mine or other extractive process operated for the purpose of recovering subsurface minerals.
3. “Operator” means any person who, duly authorized, is in charge of the development of a lease or the operation of a producing property.
4. “Owner” means the person who has the right to explore for, develop, and produce subsurface minerals and to appropriate the subsurface minerals the owner produces either for the owner or for the owner and others.
5. “Person” means and includes any natural person, corporation, limited liability company, association, partnership, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary, or other representative of any kind, and includes any department, agency, or instrumentality of the state or of any governmental subdivision thereof; the masculine gender, in referring to a person, includes the feminine and the neuter genders.
6. “Producer” means the owner of an extraction facility which is or has been capable of producing subsurface minerals.
7. “Subsurface minerals” means all naturally occurring elements and their compounds, volcanic ash, precious metals, carbonates, and natural mineral salts of boron, bromine, calcium, fluorine, iodine, lithium, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, thorium, uranium, and sulfur, and their compounds, but does not include sand and gravel and rocks crushed for sand and gravel.