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Show 754 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT out comment to January 1 in an amendment offered by Representative Dawson of Utah.392 The conference committee which later approved the House version did not comment on the change. Under the act, owners of mining claims were required within 120 days after its passage to post an amended notice of location on the claim and to record this notice in the office where the certificate of location was on file. The notice was required to state that it was filed for the purpose of obtaining the benefits of Public Law 250. Any mining claim so validated was subject, however, to a reservation of Leasing Act minerals and to a right of the Federal government or its lessees to use so much of the surface or subsurface as might be necessary for prospecting or mining of such minerals. The law failed to provide for future locations on segregated land, one of its principal defects. It should be noted that a validated location in no way affected the validity of an oil and gas lease or application, regardless of when the latter was issued or filed. Even before the enactment of Public Law 250, the Atomic Energy Commission had actively encouraged uranium prospecting and had also issued some uranium leases on public lands. Formal regulations were not announced until February 10, 1954.393 These provided the procedure for obtaining Circular 7 uranium leases. This program, it was hoped, would solve some of the problems created by the conflict with the Leasing Act. The new leasing system clumsily combined elements of both the location and leasing laws and ultimately proved to be burdensome to the Atomic Energy Commission as well as the uranium industry.394 The system was studied by an interindustry committee in 892 99 Cong. Rec. 9968-69 (1953). 39319 Fed. Reg. 764 (1954). ""Note, 24 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 319, 330 (1956). cooperation with the Interior Department and the Atomic Energy Commission. The result was Public Law 585, discussed below. Few leases were actually issued, and many of these were converted into mining claims under Public Law 585. In 1954, Circular 7 leasing was terminated.395 The Multiple Mineral Development Act of 1954-Public Law 5&?.396 This statute reflects the contemporary policy of the Federal government to foster a system of multiple use for Federal mining lands. Like Public Law 250, it established a complicated validation procedure which has largely academic significance today. The more lasting features involved a comprehensive statement for the resolution of problems of multiple use and the so-called "section 7 proceedings" which have the effect of barring an unpatented mining locator from asserting rights to the Leasing Act minerals. The validation or priority provisions 397 reaffirmed the procedure of Public Law 250 which required that locations on segregated land prior to January 1, 1953, be "relocated" within the 120-day period. Claims which were invalidated through failure to take the prescribed steps could not be revived under the new act. Vulnerable locations made between January 1, 1953, and February 10, 1954 (the effective date of the Circular 7 leasing regulations), could be perfected by taking the necessary validating steps within 120 days from August 13, 1954, the effective date of Public Law 585. However, mining claims located between February 10, 1954, and August 13, 1954, were void because of the hiatus between the cutoff date and the effective date of the act. However, if the locator had applied for a Circular 7 lease during this 38519 Fed. Reg. 7365 (1954). 308 Multiple Mineral Development Act, 68 Stat. 708 (1954), 30 U.S.C. § § 521-31 (1964). 387 See 1 American Law of Mining § 1.40 (Martz ed. 1960). |