In this subchapter:

   (1)   “Concentrates” means the mineral-rich, finished, primary products of a concentrator.

   (2)   “Concentrator” means a plant where ore is separated into concentrates and tailings.

   (3)   “Concentrator tailings” means waste material resulting from the washing, concentration or treatment of crushed ore.

   (4)   “Department” means the department of safety and professional services.

   (5)   “Environmental pollution” means the physical, chemical or biological alteration of quality of any air, water or land resources of the state which makes the same injurious to public health, harmful to agriculture, commercial or recreational use or deleterious to fish, birds, animals or plant or human life.

   (6)   “Materials in process” means those materials, other than salvageable by-products, which must be temporarily stored in a controlled manner. These materials include stockpiled development ore other than that in a mine or concentrator, mine backfill and reclaim water. The materials also include intermediate concentrates and intermediate refining and smelting products which require further processing, such as ore concentrates which must be agglomerated prior to marketing.

   (7)   “Mine excavations” means either shaft or pit excavations from which minerals have been extracted in prospecting or mining.

   (8)   “Mining” or “mining operation” means all or part of the process involved in the mining of metallic minerals, other than for exploration or prospecting, including commercial extraction, agglomeration, beneficiation, construction of roads, removal of overburden, and the production of refuse.

   (9)   “Mining company” means any person who, either directly or through subsidiaries, affiliates, contractors or other business arrangements, engages in prospecting, mining, refining or smelting.

   (10)   “Mining damage appropriation” means the appropriation under s. 20.165 (2) (a).

   (11)   “Mining site” means the surface or subsurface area disturbed by a mining operation, including the surface or subsurface area from which the minerals or refuse or both have been removed, the surface or subsurface area covered by the refuse, all lands disturbed by the construction or improvement of haulageways, and any surface or subsurface areas in which structures, equipment, materials and any other things used in the mining operation are situated.

   (12)   “Mining waste” means wastes directly resulting from or displaced by prospecting or mining and from the cleaning, preparation, separation or purification of minerals or metals during prospecting, mining, concentrating, refining or smelting operations and includes but is not limited to concentrator tailings, refinery and smelter residue, refining and smelting process emissions, mining overburden and waste treatment sludges, materials in process and salvageable by-products.

   (13)   “Mining-related injury” means death or injury to person or property caused by:

      (a)    Environmental pollution from emissions, seepages, leakages or other discharges from mine excavations in this state or of or from mining waste in this state; or

      (b)    Substantial surface subsidence from mine excavations in this state.

   (14)   “Ore” means a mineral which may be mined and processed for sale.

   (15)   “Prospecting” means engaging in the examination of an area for the purpose of determining the quality and quantity of minerals, other than for exploration but including the obtaining of an ore sample, by such physical means as excavating, trenching, construction of shafts, ramps, and tunnels and other means, other than for exploration, which the department of natural resources, by rule, identifies, and the production of prospecting refuse and other associated activities. “Prospecting” does not include such activities when the activities are, by themselves, intended for and capable of commercial exploitation of the underlying ore body. The fact that prospecting activities and construction may have use ultimately in mining, if approved, does not mean that prospecting activities and construction constitute mining within the meaning of sub. (8), provided such activities and construction are reasonably related to prospecting requirements.

   (16)   “Prospecting site” means the lands on which prospecting is actually conducted as well as those lands on which physical disturbance will occur as a result of such activity.

   (17)   “Refinery and smelter residue” means waste material resulting from the refining or smelting of concentrates.

   (18)   “Refining” means the process by which metal or valuable mineral is extracted and purified from an ore or concentrate and includes but is not limited to hydrometallurgical operations such as leaching and pyrometallurgical operations such as fire refining, roasting and cindering.

   (19)   “Salvageable by-products” includes but is not limited to coarse tailings and other materials, other than concentrates, resulting from the mining operation which are useful and for which a market or use exists or is anticipated to exist.

   (20)   “Smelting” means any metallurgical operation in which metal is separated by fusion from those impurities with which it may be chemically combined or physically mixed such as in ores.

   (21)   “Subsidence” means the sinking down of a part of the earth’s crust, including the surface, due to underground excavations or workings.