Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 68 Part 1.djvu/741

 68 STAT.]

PUBLIC LAW 586-AUG. 13, 1954

709

drawal or reservation, were subject to location under the mining laws of the United States. SEC. 2. (a) If any mining claim which shall have been located subsequent to December 31, 1952, and prior to December 11, 1953, and which shall be entitled to the benefits of this Act, shall cover any lands embraced within any mining claim which shall have been located prior to January 1, 1953, and which shall be entitled to the benefits of this Act, then as to such area of conflict said mining claim so located subsequent to December 31, 1952, shall be deemed to have been located December 11, 1953. (b) If any mining claim hereafter located shall cover any lands embraced within any mining claim which shall have been located prior to February 10, 1954, and which shall be entitled to the benefits of this Act, then as to such area of conflict said mining claim hereafter located shall be deemed to have been located one hundred and twentyone days after the date of the enactment of this Act. SEC. 3. (a) Subject to the conditions and provisions of this Act and ^^uranium leases, to any valid prior rights acquired under the laws of the United States, the owner of any pending uranium lease application or of any uranium lease shall have, for a period of one hundred and twenty days after the date of enactment of this Act, as limited in subsection (b) of this section 3, the right to locate mining claims upon the lands covered by said application or lease. (b) Any rights under any such mining claim so hereafter located pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a) of this section 3 shall be subject to any rights of the owner of any mining claim which was located prior to February 10, 1954, and which was valid at the date of the enactment of this Act or which may acquire validity under the provisions of this Act. As to any lands covered by a uranium lease and also by a pending uranium lease application, the right of mining location under this section 3, as between the owner of said lease and the owner of said application, shall be deemed as to such conflict area to be vested in the owner of said lease. As to any lands embraced in more than one such pending uranium lease application, such right of mining location, as between the owners of such conflicting applications, shall be deemed to be vested in the owner of the prior application. Priority of such an application shall be determined by the time of posting on a tract then available for such leasing of a notice of lease application in accordance with paragraph (c) of the Atomic Energy Commission's Domestic Uranium Program Circular 7 (10 C. F. R. 60.7 (c)) provided there shall have been timely compliance with the other provisions of said paragraph (c) or, if there shall not have been such timely compliance, then by the time of the filing of the uranium lease application with the Atomic Energy Commission. Any rights under any mining claim located under the provisions of this section 3 shall terminate at the expiration of thirty days after the filing for record of the notice or certificate of location of such mining claim unless, within said thirty-day period, the owner of the uranium lease application or uranium lease upon which the location of such mining claim was predicated shall have filed with the Atomic Energy Commission a withdrawal of said application or a release of said lease and shall have recorded a notice of the filing of such withdrawal or release in the county office wherein such notice or certificate of location shall be of record. (c) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (a) and (b) of this section 3, no mining claim hereafter located shall be valid as to any lands which at the time of such location were covered by a uranium lease application or a uranium lease. Any tract upon which a notice of lease application has been posted in accordance with said para-

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