444.510.  Definitions. — As used in sections 444.500 to 444.755, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the following words and terms mean:

  (1)  "Affected land", the pit area or area from which overburden has been removed, or upon which overburden has been deposited;

  (2)  "Box cut", the first open cut in the mining of coal which results in the placing of overburden on the surface of the land adjacent to the initial pit and outside of the area of land to be mined;

  (3)  "Commission", the Missouri mining commission within the department of natural resources created by section 444.520;

  (4)  "Company owned land", land owned by the operator in fee simple;

  (5)  "Director", the staff director of the Missouri mining commission;

  (6)  "Gob", that portion of refuse consisting of waste coal or bony coal of relatively large size which is separated from the marketable coal in the cleaning process or solid refuse material, not readily waterborne or pumpable, without crushing;

  (7)  "Highwall", that side of the pit adjacent to unmined land;

  (8)  "Leased land", all affected land where the operator does not own the land in fee simple;

  (9)  "Operator", any person, firm or corporation engaged in or controlling a strip mining operation;

  (10)  "Overburden", as applied to the strip mining of coal, means all of the earth and other materials which lie above natural deposits of coal, and includes such earth and other materials disturbed from their natural state in the process of strip mining;

  (11)  "Owner", the owner of any right in the land other than the operator;

  (12)  "Peak", a projecting point of overburden created in the strip mining process or that portion of unmined land remaining within the pit;

  (13)  "Person", any individual, partnership, copartnership, firm, company, public or private corporation, association, joint stock company, trust, estate, political subdivision, or any agency, board, department, or bureau of the state or federal government, or any other legal entity whatever which is recognized by law as the subject of rights and duties;

  (14)  "Pit", the place where coal is being or has been mined by strip mining;

  (15)  "Refuse", all waste material directly connected with the cleaning and preparation of substances mined by strip mining;

  (16)  "Ridge", a lengthened elevation of overburden created in the strip mining process;

  (17)  "Strip mining", mining by removing the overburden lying above natural deposits of coal, and mining directly from the natural deposits thereby exposed, and includes mining of exposed natural deposits of coal over which no overburden lies; except that "strip mining" of coal shall only mean those activities exempted from the surface coal mining law, pursuant to subsection 6 of section 444.815.