(30 U.S.C. 531) SEC. 13. If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstances, is held unconstitutional, invalid, or unenforcible, the remainder of this Act or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held unconstitutional, invalid, or unenforcible, shall not be affected thereby. SURFACE RESOURCES ACT OF 1955 1 AN ACT To amend the Act of July 31, 1947 (61 Stat. 681) and the mining laws to provide for multiple use of the surface of the same tracts of the public lands, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 1 of the Act of July 31, 1947 (61 Stat. 681), is amended to read as follows: [See text of section 1 of the Materials Act of 1947, page 91.] SEC. 2. That section 3 of the Act of July 31, 1947 (61 Stat. 681), as amended by the Act of August 31, 1950 (64 Stat. 571), is amended to read as follows: [See text of section 3 of the Materials Act of 1947, page 92.] SEC. 3. No deposit of common varieties of sand, stone, gravel, pumice, pumicite, or cinders and no deposit of petrified wood shall be deemed a valuable mineral deposit within the meaning of the mining laws of the United States so as to give effective validity to any mining claim hereafter located under such mining laws: Provided, however, That nothing herein shall affect the validity of any mining location based upon discovery of some other mineral occurring in or in association with such a deposit. "Common varieties" as used in this Act does not include deposits of such materials which are valuable because the deposit has some property giving it distinct and special value and does not include so-called "block pumice" which occurs in nature in pieces having one dimension of two inches or more. "Petrified wood" as used in this Act means agatized, opalized, petrified, or silicified wood, or any material formed by the replacement of wood by silica or other matter. (30 U.S.C. 611) SEC. 4. (a) Any mining claim hereafter located under the mining laws of the United States shall not be used, prior to issuance of patent therefore, for any purposes other than prospecting, mining or processing operations and uses reasonably incident thereto. (b) Rights under any mining claim hereafter located under the mining laws of the United States shall be subject, prior to issuance of patent therefore, to the right of the United States to manage and dispose of the vegetative surface resources thereof and to manage other surface resources thereof (except mineral deposits subject to location under the mining laws of the United States). Any such mining claim shall also be subject, prior to issuance of patent therefor, to the right of the United States, its permittees, and licensees, to use so much of the surface thereof as may be nec This is not the official title of the Act. It is a popular name used for convenient reference. The Surface Resources Act of 1955 consists of the Act of July 23, 1955 (69 Stat. 367) and subsequent amendments thereto (30 U.S.C. 611-614). |