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US Supreme Court Decisions On-Line | US Laws

[Laws in effect as of January 7, 2003]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
  January 7, 2003 and December 19, 2003]
[CITE: 30USC122]

 
                   TITLE 30--MINERAL LANDS AND MINING
 
CHAPTER 3--LANDS CONTAINING COAL, OIL, GAS, SALTS, ASPHALTIC MATERIALS, 
                   SODIUM, SULPHUR, AND BUILDING STONE
 
  SUBCHAPTER V--AGRICULTURAL ENTRY OF LANDS WITHDRAWN OR CLASSIFIED AS 
  CONTAINING PHOSPHATE, NITRATE, POTASH, OIL, GAS, ASPHALTIC MINERALS, 
                           SODIUM, OR SULPHUR
 
Sec. 122. Patents; reservation in the United States of reserved 
        deposits; acquisition of right to remove deposits; application 
        for entry to disprove classification
        
    Upon satisfactory proof of full compliance with the provisions of 
the laws under which the location, selection, entry, or purchase is 
made, the locator, selector, entryman, or purchaser shall be entitled to 
a patent to the land located, selected, entered, or purchased, which 
patent shall contain a reservation to the United States of the deposits 
on account of which the lands so patented were withdrawn or classified 
or reported as valuable, together with the right to prospect for, mine, 
and remove the same, such deposits to be subject to disposal by the 
United States only as shall be hereafter expressly directed by law: 
Provided, however, That all mineral deposits heretofore or hereafter 
reserved to the United States under sections 121 to 123 of this title 
which are subject, at the time of application for patent, to valid and 
subsisting rights acquired by discovery and location under the mining 
laws of the United States made prior to the date of the Mineral Leasing 
Act of February 25, 1920 [30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.], shall hereafter be 
subject to disposal to the holders of those valid and subsisting rights 
by patent under the mining laws of the United States in force at the 
time of such disposal. Any person qualified to acquire the reserved 
deposits may enter upon said lands with a view of prospecting for the 
same upon the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of a bond or 
undertaking to be filed with him as security for the payment of all 
damages to the crops and improvements on such lands by reason of such 
prospecting, the measure of any such damage to be fixed by agreement of 
parties or by a court of competent jurisdiction. Any person who has 
acquired from the United States the title to or the right to mine and 
remove the reserved deposits, should the United States dispose of the 
mineral deposits in lands, may reenter and occupy so much of the surface 
thereof as may be required for all purposes reasonably incident to the 
mining and removal of the minerals therefrom, and mine and remove such 
minerals, upon payment of damages caused thereby to the owner of the 
land, or upon giving a good and sufficient bond or undertaking therefor 
in an action instituted in any competent court to ascertain and fix said 
damages. Nothing herein contained shall be held to deny or abridge the 
right to present and have prompt consideration of applications to 
locate, select, enter, or purchase, under the land laws of the United 
States, lands which have been withdrawn or classified as phosphate, 
nitrate, potash, oil, gas, or asphaltic mineral lands, with a view of 
disproving such classification and securing patent without reservation, 
nor shall persons who have located, selected, entered, or purchased 
lands subsequently withdrawn, or classified as valuable for said mineral 
deposits, be debarred from the privilege of showing, at any time before 
final entry, purchase, or approval of selection or location, that the 
lands entered, selected, or located are in fact nonmineral in character.

(July 17, 1914, ch. 142, Sec. 2, 38 Stat. 509; July 20, 1956, ch. 652, 
70 Stat. 592.)

                       References in Text

    The mining laws of the United States, referred to in text, are 
classified generally to this title.
    The Mineral Leasing Act of February 25, 1920, referred to in text, 
is act Feb. 25, 1920, ch. 85, 41 Stat. 437, as amended, which is 
classified generally to chapter 3A (Sec. 181 et seq.) of this title. For 
complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note 
set out under section 181 of this title and Tables.
    The land laws of the United States, referred to in text, are 
classified generally to Title 43, Public Lands.


                               Amendments

    1956--Act July 20, 1956, permitted disposal of mineral deposits 
which are subject, at the time of application for patent, to valid and 
subsisting rights acquired by discovery and location under the mining 
laws made prior to Feb. 25, 1920.


        Lands in North Platte Reclamation Project; Mineral Rights

    Patents for lands in North Platte Reclamation Project not to contain 
reservations of minerals in certain cases, see section 125 of this 
title.

                  Section Referred to in Other Sections

    This section is referred to in sections 121, 124, 125 of this title.