§523 Uranium Leases

Summary

Owners of pending uranium lease applications or of uranium leases had the right to stake mining claims on the lands in their application or lease for 120 days after August 13, 1954, but with limits. Any new claim was subject to any mining claim that was placed before February 10, 1954 and was valid on August 13, 1954 (or later became valid under the law). If the same land was under a lease and also under a pending application, the lease owner had priority. If several applications covered the same land, the earlier application had priority, measured by the time a required notice was posted under the Atomic Energy Commission’s rules (Circular 7, 10 C.F.R. 60.7(c)) if other posting steps were timely done, or otherwise by the time the application was filed. A mining claim made under these rules ended 30 days after its notice was recorded unless, within that 30-day period, the lease or application owner filed with the Atomic Energy Commission a withdrawal or release and recorded a notice of that filing in the county. After those rules, no new mining claim could be valid against land that was already covered by a uranium lease or a uranium lease application at the time the claim was made. A tract where the required lease-application notice was posted under Circular 7 was treated as included in the application from the time of posting (if other posting steps were timely done), or otherwise from the time the application was filed.