Title 30, Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-102

§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

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

People or groups who meet the rules in section 71, who open and improve coal mines on public land and are actually in control of them, get first right to enter those same mines under those rules. If a group of at least 4 qualified people spends at least $5,000 working and improving a mine, that group may enter up to 640 acres, and that area can include their 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

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102