(a) If you engage in or conduct a surface coal mining operation, you must maintain up-to-date records that contain at least the following information:

(1) The tons of coal you produced, bought, sold, or transferred, the amount of money you received per ton, the name of person to whom you sold or transferred the coal, and the date of each sale or transfer;

(2) The tons of coal you used and your date of your consumption;

(3) The tons of coal you stockpiled or inventoried that are not classified as sold for fee computation purposes under §870.12; and

(4) For in situ coal mining operations, the total Btu value of gas you produced, the Btu value of a ton of coal in a place certified at least semiannually by an independent laboratory, and the amount of money you received for gas sold, transferred, or used.

(b) We must have access to your records of any surface coal mining operation for review. Your records must be available to us at reasonable times.

(c) We may inspect and copy any of your books or records that are necessary to substantiate the accuracy of your OSM-1 Form and payments. If the fee is paid at the maximum rate, we will not copy information relative to price. We will protect all copied information as authorized or required by the Privacy Act (5 U.S.C. 552a) and the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552).

(d) You must maintain your books and records for 6 years from the end of the calendar quarter in which the fee was due or paid, whichever is later.

(e) If you do not maintain or make available your books and records as required in this section, we will estimate the fee due under this part through use of average production figures based upon the nature and acreage of your coal mining operation.

(1) We will assess the fee at the amount we estimate plus an additional 20 percent to account for possible error in our fee liability estimate.

(2) After you receive our fee liability estimate, you may request that we revise that estimate based upon your information. However, you must demonstrate that our fee liability estimate is incorrect. You may do this by providing adequate documentation that we find to be acceptable and comparable to the information required in §870.19(a).

[73 FR 67633, Nov. 14, 2008]