Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 76.djvu/1176

 1128

Pxarchase price. Determination.

Occupant's liabilities.

Reservation of mineral rights.

64 Stat. 5 71.

Disposition of fees, etc.

PUBLIC LAW 87-851-OCT. 23, 1962

[76 STAT.

(b) Any conveyance of less than a fee made under this Act shall include provision for removal from the tract of any improvements or other property of the applicant at the close of the period for which the conveyance is made, or if it be an interest terminating on the death, of the applicant, within one year thereafter. SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Interior, prior to any conveyance under this Act, shall determine the fair market value of the interest to be conveyed, exclusive of the value of any improvements placed on the lands involved by the applicant or his predecessors in interest. Said value shall be determined as of the date of appraisal. In establishing the purchase price to be paid by the applicant for the interest, the Secretary shall take into consideration any equities of the applicant and his predecessors in interest, including conditions of prior use and occupancy. In any event the purchase price for any interest conveyed shall not exceed its fair market value nor be less than $5 per acre. The Secretary may, in his discretion, allow payment to be made in installments. SEC. 6. (a) The execution of a conveyance as authorized by section 1 of this Act shall not relieve any occupant of the land conveyed of any liability, existing on the date of said conveyance, to the United States for unauthorized use of the land in and to which an interest is conveyed. (b) Except where a mining claim embracing land applied for under this Act by a qualified applicant was located at a time when the land included therein was withdrawn or otherwise not subject to such location, no trespass charges shall be sought or collected by the United States from any qualified applicant who has filed an application for land in the mining claini pursuant to this Act, based upon occupancy of such claim, whether residential or otherwise, for any period preceding the final administrative determination of the invalidity of the mining claim by the Secretary of the Interior or the voluntary relinquishment of the mining claim, whichever occurs earlier. Nothing contained in this Act shall be construed as creating any liability for trespass to the United States which would not exist in the absence of this Act. Relief under this section shall be limited to persons who file applications for conveyances pursuant to section 1 of this Act within five years from the date of its enactment. SEC. 7. In any conveyance under this Act the mineral interests of the United States in the lands conveyed are hereby reserved for the term of the estate conveyed. Minerals locatable under the mining laws or disposable under the Act of July 31, 1947 (61 Stat. 681), as amended (30 U.S.C. 601-604), are hereby withdrawn from all forms of entry and appropriation for the term of the estate. The underlying oil, gas and other leasable minerals of the United States are hereby reserved for exploration and development purposes, but without the right of surface ingress and egress, and may be leased by the Secretary under the mineral leasing laws. SEC. 8. Rights and privileges to qualify as an applicant under this Act shall not be assignable, but may pass through devise or descent. SEC. 9. Payments of filing fees and survey costs, and the payments of the purchase price for patents in fee shall be disposed of by the Secretary of the Interior as are such fees, costs, and purchase prices in the disposition of public lands. All payments and fees for occupancy in conveyances of less than the fee, or for permits for life or shorter periods, shall be disposed of by the administering department or agency as are other receipts for the use of the lands involved. Approved October 23, 1962.

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