Since mining is a basic and essential industry supplying raw materials for medicines; building materials for homes, schools, hospitals, commerce, roads; fuels for heating and energy; metals for transportation (cars, aircraft and ships), machinery, communications infrastructure and other conveniences, it cannot be done away with as some environmentalists might like. What would modern life be like without minerals? Miners are the harvesters of the earth’s fruits. To reap those fruits, the earth must be ploughed up. After harvesting, the ploughed fields can be reclaimed and restored to pristine, natural beauty with only temporal disturbance to the earth. This text demonstrates how this can be done. It explores the legal, engineering, environmental and social perspectives of surface mining law and reclamation by landfilling.