S.L. 549.50 Art. 3Interpretation. Cap. 549. S.L. 549.77 S.L. 427.28 S.L. 423.20 S.L. 549.63

(1) In these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires: "the Act" means the Environment Protection Act; "backfill" means any material, excluding waste other than extractive waste, used for backfilling; "backfilling" means refilling an excavation void, after extraction of the mineral, for rehabilitation or construction purposes related to the mineral extraction process, such as the building or maintenance within such a void of means of access for machinery, haulage ramps, bulkheads, safety barricades or berms; and "backfilled" shall be construed accordingly; "best available techniques" is as defined in regulation 2 of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control Regulations;

"the competent authority" means the Environment and Resources Authority and such other body or person as the Minister may by order in the Gazette, prescribe and different bodies or persons may be designated as the competent authority for different provisions and different purposes of these regulations;

"the Community" means the European Community; "competent person" means a natural person who has the technical knowledge and experience, as defined by Maltese legislation, to perform the duties arising from these regulations;

"dam" means an engineered structure designed to retain or confine water and, or waste within a pond;

"dangerous substance" means a substance, mixture or preparation which is dangerous within the meaning of the Dangerous

Substances and Preparations Regulations;

*OJ L 102,11.4.2006, p. 15. †OJ L 143, 30.4.2004, p. 56. "extractive industries" means all establishments and undertakings engaged in surface or underground extraction of mineral resources for commercial purposes, including extraction by drilling boreholes, or treatment of the extracted material;

"extractive waste" means waste resulting from the prospecting, extraction, treatment and storage of mineral resources and the working of quarries, such as tailings (i.e. the waste solids or slurries that remain after the treatment of minerals by a number of techniques), waste rock and overburden (i.e. the material that extractive operations move during the process of accessing an ore or mineral body, including during the pre-production development stage), and topsoil (i.e. the upper layer of the ground) provided that they constitute waste; "hazardous waste" means any type of waste which is marked with an asterisk in Schedule 1 to the Waste Regulations, or which S.L. 549.63 has any of the properties which render a waste hazardous as specified in Schedules 2 and 3 to those regulations, or which is deemed to be hazardous by the competent authority; "heap" means an engineered facility for the deposit of solid waste on the surface; "inert waste" means waste that does not undergo any significant physical, chemical or biological transformations. Inert waste will not dissolve, burn or otherwise physically or chemically react, biodegrade or adversely affect other matter with which it comes into contact in a way likely to give rise to environmental pollution or harm human health. The total leachability and pollutant content of the waste and the ecotoxicity of the leachate must be insignificant, and in particular not endanger the quality of surface water and, or groundwater; "leachate" means any liquid percolating through the deposited waste and emitted from or contained within a waste facility, including polluted drainage, which may adversely affect the environment if not appropriately treated; "major accident" means an occurrence on site in the course of an operation involving the management of extractive waste in any establishment covered by these regulations, leading to a serious danger to human health and, or the environment, whether immediately or over time, on-site or off-site; "mineral resource" or "mineral" means a naturally occurring deposit in the earth’s crust of an organic or inorganic substance, such as energy fuels, metal ores, industrial minerals and construction minerals, but excluding water;

"the Minister" means the Minister responsible for the environment;

"off-shore" means that area of the sea and seabed extending from the low water mark of ordinary or medium tides outwards;

"operator" means the natural or legal person responsible for the management of extractive waste, in accordance with Maltese legislation, including in respect of temporary storage of extractive waste as well as the operational and the after-closure phases; "pond" means a natural or engineered facility for disposing of fine-grained waste, normally tailings, along with varying amounts of free water, resulting from the treatment of mineral resources and from the clearing and recycling of process water;

"prospecting" means the search for mineral deposits of economic value, including sampling, bulk sampling, drilling and trenching, but excluding any works required for the development of such deposits, and any activities directly associated with an existing extractive operation;

"the public" means one or more natural or legal persons and, in accordance with Maltese legislation or practice, their associations, organisations or groups; "the public concerned" means the public affected or likely to be affected by, or having an interest in, the environmental decision-making under regulations 8 and 9; for the purposes of this definition, non-governmental organisations promoting environmental protection and meeting any requirement under Maltese legislation shall be deemed to have such an interest; "receiving body of water" means surface waters, groundwater, transitional waters and coastal water as defined in regulation 2(1) of the Water Policy Framework Regulations;

"rehabilitation" means the treatment of the land affected by a waste facility in such a way as to restore the land to a satisfactory state, with particular regard to soil quality, wild life, natural habitats, freshwater systems, landscape and appropriate beneficial uses;

"site" means all land at a distinct geographic location under the management control of an operator;

"substantial change" means a change in the structure or operation of a waste facility that, in the opinion of the competent authority, may have significant negative effects on human health or the environment; "tailings" means the waste solids or slurries that remain after the treatment of minerals by separation processes (e.g. crushing, grinding, size-sorting, flotation and other physico-chemical techniques) to remove the valuable minerals from the less valuable rock; "treatment" means the mechanical, physical, biological, thermal or chemical process or combination of processes carried out on mineral resources, including from the working of quarries, with a view to extracting the mineral, including size change, classification, separation and leaching, and the re-processing of previously discarded waste, but excluding smelting, thermal manufacturing processes (other than the burning of limestone) and metallurgical processes; "unpolluted soil" means soil that is removed from the upper layer of the ground during extractive activities and that is not deemed to be polluted under Community or Maltese legislation; "waste" in addition to what is said in the Act, means any thing, substance, product or object, whether in solid or liquid form, whether hazardous or otherwise, which the holder discards, or intends, or is required to discard, or any other which is deemed to be waste by the competent authority nominated by the Minister responsible for the environment under the Act; "waste facility" means any area designated for the accumulation or deposit of extractive waste, whether in a solid or liquid state or in solution or suspension, for the following time-periods:

(i) no time-period for Category A waste facilities and facilities for waste characterised as hazardous in the waste management plan;

(ii) a period of more than six months for facilities for hazardous waste generated unexpectedly;

(iii) a period of more than one year for facilities for non-hazardous non-inert waste;

(iv) a period of more than three years for facilities for unpolluted soil, non-hazardous prospecting waste, waste resulting from the extraction, treatment and storage of peat and inert waste: Provided that such facilities are deemed to include any dam or other structure serving to contain, retain, confine or otherwise support such a facility, and also to include, but not be limited to, heaps and ponds, but excluding excavation voids; "waste holder" means the producer of the extractive waste or the natural or legal person who is in possession of it; "weak acid dissociable cyanide" means cyanide and cyanide compounds that are dissociated with a weak acid at a defined pH.

(2) All other terms shall have the same meaning as that assigned to them in regulation 2 of the Waste Regulations.