Opencast Coal Act 1958

1 Authorisation of opencast working of coal

(1) The National Coal Board (in this Act referred to as " the Board ") shall not work any coal by opencast operations, or cause or permit any coal to be worked by such operations, except in pursuance of an authorisation granted in that behalf by the Minister of Power (in this Act referred to as " the Minister "):

Provided that this subsection shall have effect subject to the provisions of section forty-six of this Act and to the transitional provisions having effect by virtue of section forty-eight of this Act.

(2) The provisions of the First Schedule to this Act shall have effect with respect to authorisations under this section.

(3) Except in so far as any rights are conferred 'upon the Board by virtue of the following provisions of this Act, an authorisation under this section shall not confer upon the Board any rights or powers to which the Board would not be entitled if this section had not been enacted.

(4) In the following provisions of this Act any reference to the land comprised in an authorisation under this section is a reference to the aggregate of the land specified in the authorisation as land which the Board will require to occupy for the purpose of enabling authorised operations to be carried out.

(5) In this Act " the authorised purposes ", in relation to an authorisation under this section, means either or both of the following, that is to say, the purposes—

(a) of working coal by opencast operations in pursuance of the authorisation, and

(b) of restoring land affected by the working of coal in pursuance of the authorisation or by operations connected therewith,

and " authorised operations ", in relation to such an authorisation, means operations carried out for, or incidental to, the fulfilment of the authorised purposes.