OCR Text |
Show Reserving valuable mineral interests has the obvious merit of providing potential revenues and permitting consolidation of mineral interests for potential development. Also, it forestalls possible windfalls to surface owners. Where there are no known mineral values and if the property is being acquired by payment of full value, the mineral interest should be transferred to the purchaser. As a corollary to this, we recommend that, upon petition of the surface owner, mineral interests heretofore reserved should be sold to the surface owner at appraised market value if there is a determination that the land is not valuable for minerals. However, the charge for the conveyance should not be less than the administrative cost to the Government. Recognizing the pitfalls of reserved mineral interests, we have nonetheless concluded, after considering all factors, that the national interest requires a continued policy of reserving known valuable mineral interests. However, in addition to making provision for sale of previously reserved interests where land is not valuable for minerals, we also recommend that upon a clear showing of need to unite the surface and subsurface titles in order to permit development of the surface, surface owners should be allowed to acquire valuable mineral interests at their appraised market value. Under existing laws, there are a variety of provisions for reservation of minerals. Some, such as the Stockraising Homestead Act37 and the Public Lands Sale Act of 1964,38 require reservation of all mineral interests. We believe this to be poor policy since reserved interests constitute clouds on title which frequently hinder later shifts of such properties to higher uses. This has required individual relief statutes in order to permit a surface owner to use his property even though there is no known mineral and little likelihood of any interference. Similarly, land that was once agricultural has become suburban residential land for expanding communities in which it would be impractical to develop a mineral deposit in most cases. There are over 62 million acres of land, the surface of which is in non-Federal ownership, in which the Federal Government holds reserved mineral interests. With respect to those minerals subject to leasing, exploration and development is permitted only with the consent of the United States. However, no such 37 43 U.S.C. §299 (1964). 38 43 U.S.C. § 1424 (1964). 7*1 * x f - T \ ' The Piceance Basin of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming contains most of the known oil shale deposits (shown in the upper strata) in the United States. These reserves constitute a tremendous energy resource. 137 |