“A bill to amend the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands to make that Act applicable to hardrock minerals, and for other purposes.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section revises the definitions in section 2 of the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands (30 U.S.C. 351) by numbering the existing terms—(1) acquired lands and lands acquired by the United States, (3) lease, (4) mineral leasing laws, (5) oil, (6) Secretary, and (7) United States—and inserting a new paragraph (2) defining "hardrock mineral" to include deposits of minerals found in sedimentary or other rocks, base metals, precious metals, industrial metals, and precious and semi-precious gemstones (excluding coal, oil, oil shale, gas, sodium, potassium, sulfur, and mineral materials under the Materials Act of 1947 (30 U.S.C. 601 et seq.)). It further amends section 3 (30 U.S.C. 352) to authorize leasing of oil, gas, sulfur, and hardrock minerals on such lands. (As background, the act applies specified mineral leasing laws to lands acquired by the United States, such as certain national forest lands under the Weeks Law (16 U.S.C. 552 et seq.). Thus, this extends leasing authority for hardrock minerals on those lands.)