The owner, operator, or lessee of any underground coal mine in this state shall make or cause to be made by a competent engineer an accurate and exact detail map of said mine, showing the exact position of said mine in reference to the section line, which shall be connected with known boundary lines of the section or subdivision of the section. Such map shall show accurately the position of any branches, creeks, rivers, railroads, oil and gas pipelines under which said mine workings extend and, as near as possible, the position of any coal mines nearby. The location of all oil and gas wells shall be shown on said map. Said maps shall show all shafts, slopes, tunnels, or other openings to the surface or to the workings of a contiguous coal mine; all excavations, entries, rooms, and crosscuts; the location of the fan and the direction of the air currents; the location of pumps, hauling engines, engine planes, abandoned works, fire walls, and standing water; and, the boundary line of any surface outcrop of the seam. A separate and similar map, drawn to the same scale in all cases, shall be made of each and every seam which shall be worked in any coal mine and the maps of all such seams shall show all shafts, inclined planes, or passageways connecting the same. Each map shall also show by elevation in feet and decimals thereof the rise and dip of the seam from the opening in either direction to the face of the workings. Said map shall be sworn to by the engineer making the same. The map provided for in this section shall be filed with the department during the month of January next after the opening of said mine and shall show its condition on said January 1. All new work inside of the mine must be added to said map or a new map filed each year thereafter, showing the condition of the mine on January 1 of the same year and this provision for additions to maps shall apply to all maps which have heretofore been filed in the office of the department. Said maps shall be filed in the office of the department, which shall provide a suitable and safe place for keeping them. The department shall refuse to accept maps when made by persons known to be incapable of doing such work. The engineer preparing such map shall certify on each map as to the correctness of such map to the best of his knowledge and belief. Said map shall be made on a legible scale. The persons entitled to examine maps, plats, and records of a coal mine shall be the owner, operator, or lessee, or agent of such coal mine, the person financially interested in such mine, the owner or owners of land adjacent to such mine, the owner, operator or lessee, or agent of a coal mine adjacent to such mine and the authorized representative of the employees of such or the employees driving any breakthrough liable to break into an adjacent mine. The department shall not permit such maps, plans, records, and papers to be removed from its office, and shall not furnish copies thereof to any person except by request of the owner, operator, lessee, or agent of the mine to which such maps, plans, and records pertain.
Last modified: May 3, 2021