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Show LEGAL ASPECTS OF MINERAL RESOURCES EXPLOITATION 745 tween the states and the Federal government. The act has, of course, been supplemented several times since 1920 and changed in several material respects. Since substantial space in this chapter has been devoted to the history of coal resources in the public domain, brief attention should be given to the provisions of the new law relating to coal leases. The act gives the Secretary of the Interior authority to issue prospecting permits, limited licenses, and leases.336 The limited license is used primarily to permit municipalities in times of emergency to mine coal in small areas for the benefit of impoverished families. Two-year permits to prospect for coal in unproved land may be issued in the discretion of the Secretary. There are acreage limitations and the Secretary requires a clear showing that market conditions justify the permit. The prospecting permit is a prerequisite for the issuance of a preference lease (which presupposes that coal in commercial quantities exists in the area). When conditions war- 336 30 U.S.C. § § 202-208 (1964 ed.). Departmental regulations will be found in 43 C.F.R., Part 3130 (1967). Coal leasing is discussed generally in 2 American Law of Mining § § 10.43-10.46 (Martz ed. 1960). rant, leases, not to exceed 2,560 acres, may also be offered by the Department on the basis of competitive bidding. There are provisions for minimum rentals and royalties. The Leasing Act was the first major change in the public mining laws in more than 50 years. It was the second major change in 120 years. That the mining laws were outmoded, at least as to oil and gas, long before 1920 was a truism seemingly known to everyone except Congress. Now and then a cry in the wilderness came from Interior or the Office of the President, and sometimes it could be heard in the House of Representatives. The Senate more often than not seemed to be too influenced by what is tritely referred to as "special interests." It is no wonder that a contemporary writer has cynically described the Leasing Act as337 ... a belated effort to safeguard the remnants of the nation's lands west of the Alleghenys after a century and a half of speculation and exploitation masked by exalted references to manifest destiny and internal improvements and tempered by safety-valve theories for hard-pressed Eastern workers and homestead settlements for sturdy family fanners. Engler, supra note 331, at 81. Part 3 Contemporary American Mining Law The history of public mining law in this country has yet to record a plateau of comparative quietude. The events which have transpired since the enactment of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 are, in their own setting, as unusual as the dramatic episodes of the past. The major problems arising during this later period will be covered in other special reports which are being prepared for the Public Land Law Review Commission. To attempt to evaluate what has been done to provide solutions for these problems would be to infringe upon their domain. It would be naive to attempt to judge the operation of contemporary mining law without the necessary data to support the conclusions. Accordingly, Part 3 of this chapter will simply recount the major "crises" during this period, with a somewhat closer look at those periods which are now "ancient history" in mining law. |