§122 — Title 30 Mineral Lands and Mining | U.S. Code

§122 Patents; Reservation in the United States of Reserved Deposits; Acquisition of Right to Remove Deposits; Application for Entry to Disprove Classification

Title 30 › 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OIL, GAS, SALTS, ASPHALTIC MATERIALS, SODIUM, SULPHUR, AND BUILDING STONE › Subchapter V— AGRICULTURAL ENTRY OF LANDS WITHDRAWN OR CLASSIFIED AS CONTAINING PHOSPHATE, NITRATE, POTASH, OIL, GAS, ASPHALTIC MINERALS, SODIUM, OR SULPHUR › § 122

Last updated Apr 5, 2026|Official source

Summary

If a person proves they followed the laws when they located, selected, entered, or bought public land, they get a patent (legal title) to that land. The patent will keep the United States’ claim on any mineral deposits that caused the land to be set aside, and the United States keeps the right to explore, mine, and remove those minerals. The United States can only give away those reserved minerals later if another law says so. If the minerals were reserved but, at the time of the patent application, someone already had valid mining rights obtained by discovery and location under the mining laws before the Mineral Leasing Act of February 25, 1920, then those earlier rights can be honored and the minerals can be patented to those rights-holders under the mining laws in effect when the disposal happens (see sections 121 to 123). People who can get the reserved minerals may enter the land to look for them if the Secretary of the Interior approves a bond to pay any damage to crops or improvements. Damages must be agreed on or decided by a court. A person who later acquires the right or title to mine the reserved minerals may reenter and use as much surface as reasonably needed for mining, but must pay for damages or give a valid bond while a court fixes those damages. Anyone may still apply and get prompt review to show land classified as phosphate, nitrate, potash, oil, gas, or asphaltic mineral land is not mineral and try to get a patent without a mineral reservation. People who located, selected, entered, or bought land later withdrawn or classified may, before final approval, prove the land is nonmineral.

Title 30, §122

Mineral Lands and Mining — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

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.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

The Mineral Leasing Act of February 25, 1920, referred to in text, is act Feb. 25, 1920, ch. 85, 41 Stat. 437, which is classified generally to chapter 3A (§ 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.

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.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

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