§523 Uranium leases

Summary

Owners of a uranium lease or a pending uranium lease application have the right to place mining claims on the same land for 120 days after August 13, 1954, but only under the rules of this chapter and any earlier valid U.S. rights. Any mining claim placed this way must yield to any mining claim that was located before February 10, 1954 and was valid on August 13, 1954 (or that later becomes valid under this chapter). If the same land is covered by both a lease and a pending application, the leaseholder has priority. If several applications conflict, the one posted first under the Atomic Energy Commission’s Domestic Uranium Program Circular 7 (10 C.F.R. 60.7(c)) has priority if other posting rules were met; otherwise priority is by the filing time with the Commission. A mining claim made under these rules ends 30 days after its notice or certificate is filed unless, within those 30 days, the lease or application owner files a withdrawal or release with the Atomic Energy Commission and records notice of that filing in the county office. Except for the 120-day right above, no new mining claim is valid on land that was already covered by a uranium lease or lease application at the time the claim was located. A posted notice under Circular 7 counts as putting the tract into an application from the time of posting if the posting met the other requirements; if not, it counts from the time the application was filed with the Commission.