11 AAC 86.790. Abandonment; suit to collect payment

(a) The department will consider that the holder of a mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease has abandoned to the state all rights acquired under that state mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease if the holder

(1) fails to file a production royalty return when due; or

(2) does not pay a portion of the production royalty when the payment is due and thereafter does not, within 30 days of receipt of a certified notice of abandonment, pay the total amount that is due.

(b) If the holder of more than one state mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease timely files a production royalty return and timely pays in full a production royalty payment for one or more but not all of that holder's mining claims, leasehold locations, or mining leases, only those mining claims, leasehold locations, and mining leases for which the holder failed to timely file a production royalty report or failed to timely pay at least a portion of the production royalty payment are subject to abandonment under this section. If the division cannot readily determine the allocation of a production royalty payment to the holder's various mining claims, leasehold locations, or mining leases on which the holder failed to report or pay, all the holder's mining claims, leasehold locations, and mining leases in production during that calendar year are considered abandoned.

(c) If a production royalty payment is deficient but is otherwise timely paid, the holder of a mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease is considered to have abandoned the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease unless

(1) the holder pays the deficiency, plus interest, within 60 days after the date on the deficiency notice required by 11 AAC 86.772(b) ;

(2) the holder, after protest of the deficiency under 11 AAC 86.778, pays the amount determined to be due at the conclusion of an informal conference conducted under 11 AAC 86.781 or, if the protest was continued, within 30 days after the date on the notice of the department's decision under 11 AAC 86.784(g) ; or

(3) the holder, after appeal under 11 AAC 86.787, pays the amount adjudicated to be due within 30 days after final non-appealable judgment.

(d) If an abandonment is considered to have occurred under this section, the division shall post at the Anchorage and Fairbanks offices of the division, and record in the recording district in which the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease is located, a notice of abandonment. This notice must

(1) identify the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease;

(2) state the basis on which the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease is considered abandoned; and

(3) be signed by a representative of the division.

(e) For purposes of abandonment of any mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease, the owner of record with the division as of the last day of the calendar year has the primary responsibility of assuring that all holders with interests in the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease at any time during that calendar year timely report and pay in full the production royalties due. Should any holder of an interest in that mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease fail to timely file its production royalty report and pay in full the production royalties when due, all interests in the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease, except those of the state, are subject to abandonment to the state under 11 AAC 86.760 - 11 AAC 86.796. To avoid abandonment, the owner of record or any other holder may timely file and pay in full the production royalties due from a holder of an interest in the mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease.

(f) In addition to considering a mining claim, leasehold location, or mining lease to be abandoned, the division may file suit to collect a production royalty payment, if the production royalty payment was not paid or was deficient or a production royalty return was not filed when due.

History: Eff. 7/26/91, Register 119; am 8/26/98, Register 147

Authority: AS 38.05.212

AS 38.05.265

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