Title 30 — Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-73not60
§72 Preference Right of Coal Mine Entry; Acreage Limitation
Title 30 › Chapter 3— LANDS CONTAINING COAL, OIL, GAS, SALTS, ASPHALTIC MATERIALS, SODIUM, SULPHUR, AND BUILDING STONE › Subchapter I— COAL LAND ENTRIES IN GENERAL › § 72
Summary
Qualified people or groups who open and improve coal mines on public land and actually occupy them get a first right to enter and claim those mines under section 71. If a group of at least four qualified people spends at least $5,000 working and improving a mine or mines, that group may enter up to 640 acres, including the mining improvements.
Full Legal Text
Title 30, §72
Mineral Lands and Mining — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Any person or association of persons severally qualified, as provided in section 71 of this title, who have opened and improved, or shall open and improve, any coal mine or mines upon the public lands, and shall be in actual possession of the same, shall be entitled to a preference right of entry, under section 71 of this title, of the mines so opened and improved: Provided, That when any association of not less than four persons, severally qualified as provided in section 71 of this title, shall have expended not less than $5,000 in working and improving any such mine or mines, such association may enter not exceeding six hundred and forty acres, including such mining improvements.
Legislative History
Notes & Related Subsidiaries
Editorial Notes
Codification R.S. § 2348 derived from act Mar. 3, 1873, ch. 279, § 2, 17 Stat. 607.
Executive Documents
Indian Lands ExceptedSee note set out under section 71 of this title.
Reference
Citations & Metadata
Citation
30 U.S.C. § 72
Title 30 — Mineral Lands and Mining
Last Updated
Apr 5, 2026
Release point: 119-73not60