Any person, firm or corporation engaged in or controlling commercial surface mining of industrial minerals in areas opened on or after Jan. 1, 1972, must obtain a permit from the Missouri Mining Commission, in accordance with section 444.770.1 and section 444.770.2 RSMo.
Missouri has natural formations of limestone, clay, sandstone and granite along with sand and gravel deposits. These industrial minerals provide the foundation of Missouri’s infrastructure. Mining for these industrial minerals occurs in almost every county of the state. More than 50 million tons of these minerals are mined in Missouri each year. Missouri has more than 500 open pit permitted mine sites; approximately 350 of these sites are limestone quarries. People utilize industrial minerals every day, in the home in which we live, the roads, and bridges on which we drive, in the building in which we work, in the food we eat and in the purification of the water we drink. Industrial minerals are in toothpaste, antacids and charcoal.
There are no regulations in the Land Reclamation Act relating to how deep an open pit site can be mined, though it typically is not economical for operators to mine deep enough to hit the water table. The general concerns relating to open pit operations are factors such as blasting, groundwater, and truck traffic. However, these concerns are not regulated by the Land Reclamation Act. Who Regulates Blasting at Quarries PUB2734.