1530                                        LAWS OF MARYLAND                                     Ch. 266

(iii) Excavation or grading [conducted]
ACTIVITIES DETERMINED BY THE DEPARTMENT AS BEING solely in

aid of on-site farming or on-site construction [for

purposes other than mining];

(iv) Removal of overburden and mining of
limited amounts of any mineral when done only for the
purpose of prospecting and to the extent necessary to
determine the location, quantity, or quality of any natural
deposit, if no minerals are sold, processed for sale, or
consumed in the regular operation of a business;

(v) The handling, processing, or storage
of slag and stone on the premises of a manufacturer as a
part of the manufacturing process which requires stone as a
raw material or produces slag as a by-product;

(vi) The extraction of minerals, by a
landowner for his own noncommercial use from land owned or
leased by him;

(vii) Mining operations if the affected
land does not exceed one acre in area;

(viii) The extraction of sand, gravel,
rock, stone, earth, or fill from borrow pits for highway
construction purposes or other public facilities, if the
work is performed under a bond, contract, and specifications
of the Department which provide for and require reclamation
of the area affected in the manner provided by this
subtitle; or

(ix) Dredging from submerged public or
private lands in the State if this activity is conducted
under a license from the State Board of Public Works or by
permit from the Department, as provided for in Title 9 of
this article.

7-6A-04.

(a) All funds received by the Department from license
fees, permit fees, SPECIAL RECLAMATION FEES, the forfeiture
of bonds and of cash deposits and securities, and fines
collected upon conviction of an operator under §§
7-6A-06[(c)] (E) and 7-6A-07[(f)] (H) shall be deposited to
the credit of the State Treasurer in a bank he designates OR
MAY BE INVESTED AS PROVIDED BY LAW, and shall be maintained
as a special fund on the books of the Comptroller of the
Treasury in an account, to be known as the "Surface Mined
Land Reclamation Fund." This Fund shall be used by the
Department for the administration and implementation of this
subtitle, including rehabilitating the area of land affected
by the operation upon which liability was charged on the
bond.