30 U.S.C. § 262 : US Code - Section 262: Leases to permittees; survey of lands; royalties and annual rentals

Search 30 U.S.C. § 262 : US Code - Section 262: Leases to permittees; survey of lands; royalties and annual rentals

Upon showing to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Interior
that valuable deposits of one of the substances enumerated in
section 261 of this title have been discovered by the permittee
within the area covered by his permit and that such land is chiefly
valuable therefor, the permittee shall be entitled to a lease for
any or all of the land embraced in the prospecting permit at a
royalty of not less than 2 per centum of the quantity or gross
value of the output of sodium compounds and other related products
at the point of shipment to market; the lands in such lease to be
taken in compact form by legal subdivisions of the public land
surveys or, if the land be not surveyed, by survey executed at the
cost of the permittee in accordance with regulations prescribed by
the Secretary of the Interior. Lands known to contain valuable
deposits of one of the substances enumerated in section 261 of this
title and not covered by permits or leases shall be subject to
lease by the Secretary of the Interior through advertisement,
competitive bidding, or such other methods as he may by general
regulations adopt and in such areas as he shall fix, not exceeding
two thousand five hundred and sixty acres. All leases under this
section shall be conditioned upon the payment by the lessee of such
royalty as may be fixed in the lease, not less than 2 per centum of
the quantity or gross value of the output of sodium compounds and
other related products at the point of shipment to market, and the
payment in advance of a rental of 25 cents per acre for the first
calendar year or fraction thereof, 50 cents per acre for the
second, third, fourth, and fifth calendar years respectively; and
$1 per acre per annum thereafter during the continuance of the
lease, such rental for any one year to be credited against
royalties accruing for that year. Leases under this section shall
be for a period of twenty years, with preferential right in the
lessee to renew for successive periods of ten years upon such
reasonable terms and conditions as may be prescribed by the
Secretary of the Interior unless otherwise provided by law at the
expiration of such period: Provided, That nothing in this chapter
shall prohibit the mining and sale of sodium compounds under
potassium leases issued pursuant to subchapter VII [Sec. 141 et
seq.] of chapter 3 of this title and subchapter IX of this chapter,
nor the mining and sale of potassium compounds as a byproduct from
sodium leases taken under this section: Provided further, That on
application by any lessee the Secretary of the Interior is
authorized to modify the rental and royalty provisions stipulated
in any existing sodium lease to conform to the provisions of this
section.