SEVENTIETH CONGRESS . SESS. II . Cn. 19. 1928 .
1019 CHAP . 19 .-An Act To amend sections 23 and 24 of the General Leasing Act approved February 25, 1920 (Forty-Atrst Statutes at Large, page 437) . Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States o f America in Congress assembled, That sections 23 and 24 of the General Leasing Act approved February 25, 1920 (Forty-first Statutes at Large, page 437), are hereby amended to read as fol lows " SEC. 23. That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, under such rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to grant to any qualified applicant a prospecting permit which shall give the exclusive right to prospect for chlorides, sulphates, carbonates, borat es, si licate s, or nitrat es of sodium, in la nds be longin g to t he United States for a period of not exceeding two years : Provided, That the area to be included in such a permit shall not exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres of land in reasonably compact form. SEC . 24. That upon showing to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the I nterio r that valua ble de posits of one of th e subs tances enume r- ated in section 23 hereof have been discovered by the permittee within the area covered by his permit and that such land is chiefly valuable therefor, the permittee shall be entitled to a lease for any or all of the land embraced in the prospecting permit at a royalty of not less than 2 per centum of the quantity or gross value of the output of sodium compounds and other related products at the point of shipment to market ; the lands in such lease to be taken in compact form by legal subdivisions of the public land surveys or, if the land be not surveyed, by survey executed at the cost of the permi ttee i n acco rdance with regula tions p rescri bed by the S ecreta ry of the Interior. Lands known to contain valuable deposits of one of the substances enumerated in section 23 hereof and not covered by permits or leases shall be subject to lease by the Secretary of the Inte rior throu gh a dvert iseme nt, c ompe titiv e bid ding , or such other methods as he may by general regulations adopt and in such areas as he shall fix, not exceeding two thousand five hundred and sixty acres . All lease s unde r this secti on sha ll be c onditi oned u pon the payment by the lessee of such royalty as may be fixed in the lease, not less than 2 per centum of the quantity or gross value of the output of sodium compounds and other related products at the point of shipment to market, and the payment in advance of a rental of 25 cents per acre for the first calendar year or fraction thereof, 50 cents per acre for the second, third, fourth, and fifth calendar years respectively ; and $1 per acre per annum thereafter during the continuance of the lease, such rental for any one year to be credited against royalties accruing for that year. Leases under this section shall be for a period of twenty years, with preferential right in the lessee to renew for successive periods of ten years upon such reasonable terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior unless otherwise provided by law at the expiration of such period : Provided, That nothing in this Act shall proh ibit the minin g an d sal e of sodiu m co mpoun ds un der potas sium leases issued pursuant to the Acts of October 2, 1917 (Fortieth Stat- utes at Large, page 297), and February 7, 1927 (Forty-fourth Statutes at Large, page 1457), nor the mining and sale of potassium compounds as a by-product from sodium leases taken under this section : Provi ded f urthe r, That on application by any lessee the ent odsescation of pres- Secretary of the Interior is authorized to modify the rental and royalty provisions stipulated in any existing sodium lease to conform to the provisions of this section ." Approved, December 11, 1928 . 54835•-29-rr 1-68 December 11, 1928 . [1f. R. 10885.1 [Public, No .631.] Public lands . Nonmetallic mineral deposits on . Vol. 41, p.447, amend- ed. Prospecting permits allowed for sodi um compounds . Protiso . Area limited . Lease to permittee of the a rea in w hich discovery made . Roy alty . Landscontaining kn own deposits sub . ject to lease . Royalty, rentals, etc . Term of leases . Prorisas . Sales, etc., of com- pounds u nder potas - sium leases not forbid- den . Vol. 40, p. 297. Vol . 44, p. 1057.
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