Title 30, Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-102

§615 Limitation of Existing Rights

Title 30 › CHAPTER 15 — SURFACE RESOURCES › SUBCHAPTER II — MINING LOCATIONS › § 615

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

The subchapter and sections 601 and 603 do not reduce or limit the rights of people who already hold a valid mining claim. Those rights stay the same unless they are changed by a process under section 613 or by a claimant giving up their rights under section 614. These parts also do not let a future mining patent add new reservations, limits, or restrictions unless the law already allows them. They do not remove existing power to put such limits in a patent, and they do not stop the United States or its lessees, permittees, and licensees from using the land when the law allows it.

Full Legal Text

Title 30, §615

Mineral Lands and Mining, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Nothing in this subchapter and section 601 and 603 of this title shall be construed in any manner to limit or restrict or to authorize the limitation or restriction of any existing rights of any claimant under any valid mining claim heretofore located, except as such rights may be limited or restricted as a result of a proceeding pursuant to section 613 of this title, or as a result of a waiver and relinquishment pursuant to section 614 of this title; and nothing in this subchapter and section 601 and 603 of this title shall be construed in any manner to authorized inclusion in any patent hereafter issued under the mining laws of the United States for any mining claim heretofore or hereafter located, of any reservation, limitation, or restriction not otherwise authorized by law, or to limit or repeal any existing authority to include any reservation, limitation, or restriction in any such patent, or to limit or restrict any use of the lands covered by any patented or unpatented mining claim by the United States, its lessees, permittees, and licensees which is otherwise authorized by law.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

30 U.S.C. § 615

Title 30, Mineral Lands and Mining

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102