Volume 63 · 215
Public Law 81–232
Providing for the temporary deferment in certain unavoidable contingencies of annual assessment work on mining claims held by location in the United States, and enlarging the liability for damages caused to stock raising and other home steads by mining activities.
Approved June 21, 1949
Statutory text
AN ACT
Providing for the temporary deferment in certain unavoidable contingencies of annual assessment work on mining claims held by location in the United States, and enlarging the liability for damages caused to stock raising and other home steads by mining activities.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the performance
Mining claims.
Deferment of annual assessment work.
of not less than $100 worth of labor or the making of improvements aggregating such amount, which labor or improvements are required under the provisions of section 2324 of the Revised Statutes of
the United States to be made during each year, may be deferred by the Secretary of the Interior as to any mining claim or group of claims in the United States upon the submission by the claimant of evidence satisfactory to the Secretary that such mining claim or group of claims is surrounded by lands over which a right-of-way for the performance of such assessment work has been denied or is in litigation or is in the process of acquisition under State law or that other legal impediments exist which affect the right of the claimant to enter upon the surface of such claim or group of claims or to gain access to the boundaries thereof.
Sec. 2.
The period for which said deferment may be granted shall
Termination.
end when the conditions justifying deferment have been removed: Provided, That the initial period shall not exceed one year but may be renewed for a further period of one year if justifiable conditions exist: Provided further, That the relief available under this Act is in addition to any relief available under any other Act of Congress with respect to mining claims.
Sec. 3.
All deferred assessment work shall be performed not later
Performance of deferred work.
than the end of the assessment year next subsequent to the removal or cessation of the causes for deferment or the expiration of any deferments granted under this Act and shall be in addition to the annual assessment work required by law in such year.
Sec. 4.
Claimant shall file or record or cause to be filed or recorded
Filing of notice.
in the office where the notice or certificate of location of such claim or group of claims is filed or recorded, a notice to the public of claimant’s petition to the Secretary of the Interior for deferment under this Act, and of the order or decision disposing of such petition.
Sec. 5.
Notwithstanding the provisions of any Act of Congress to
Liability for damages.
the contrary, any person who hereafter prospects for, mines, or removes by strip or open pit mining methods, any minerals from any land included in a stock raising or other homestead entry or patent, and who had been liable under such an existing Act only tor damages caused thereby to the crops or improvements of the entryman or patentee, shall also be liable for any damage that may be caused to the value of the land for grazing By such prospecting for, mining, or removal of minerals. Nothing in this section shall be considered to impair any vested right in existence on the effective date of this section.
Approved June 21, 1949.