§482a Mining Rights in Prescott National Forest

Summary

On and after January 19, 1933, miners who locate claims under United States mining laws inside a specified part of the Prescott National Forest that lies in the city of Prescott’s municipal watershed — an area of three thousand six hundred acres, more or less — may use as much of the land surface as is reasonably needed to prospect and mine. They may take mineral deposits and the timber needed for mining without a permit or charge, but timber cutting (except for clearing needed for mining or for mining buildings) must follow the same forest rules that apply on nearby national-forest land. Claimants must not block other lawful uses of the surface under national-forest rules if those uses do not conflict with mining. Land patents issued after January 19, 1933, for those lands will transfer the mineral rights to the patentee and allow cutting of mature timber needed to extract the minerals, provided the timber is cut under the national-forest rules for sound forest management. The United States keeps title to the surface and its products, and any surface use not needed for mining must follow Department of Agriculture and national-forest regulations. Mining claims that existed on January 19, 1933, and are kept up under the original law and Arizona law may be completed either under this rule or under the law they started under, whichever the claimant chooses.