The statutory authority for the regulations in this group is as follows:

(a) Leasable minerals—(1) Public domain. The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920, as amended (30 U.S.C. 181 et seq.).

(2) Acquired lands. The Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands of 1947, as amended (30 U.S.C. 351-359) and the Act of June 28, 1944 (58 Stat. 483-485) for those lands reserved from allotment by section 58 of the supplemental agreement of 1902 (32 Stat. 654) with the Choctaw-Chickasaw Nation of Indians. Congress ratified the purchase contract in the Act of June 24, 1948 (62 Stat. 596) and appropriated funds for the purchase in the Act of May 24, 1949 (63 Stat. 76).

(b) Hardrock minerals. (1) Section 402 of Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1946 (5 U.S.C. Appendix) transferred the functions of the Secretary of Agriculture for the leasing or other disposal of minerals to the Secretary of the Interior for lands acquired under the following statutes:

(i) The Act of March 4, 1917 (16 U.S.C. 520);

(ii) Title II of the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933 (40 U.S.C. 401,403;

(iii) The 1935 Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of April 8, 1935 (48 Stat. 115, 118);

(iv) Section 55 of Title I of the Act of August 24, 1935 (49 Stat. 750, 781);

(v) The Act of July 22, 1937 (50 Stat. 522, 525, 530), as amended July 28, 1942 (7 U.S.C. 1011(c) and 1018); and

(vi) Section 3 of the Act of June 28, 1952 (66 Stat. 285).

(2) Section 3 of the Act of September 1, 1949 (30 U.S.C. 192c) authorized the issuance of mineral leases or permits for the exploration, development and utilization of minerals, other than those covered by the Mineral Leasing Act for Acquired Lands, in certain lands added to the Shasta National Forest by the Act of March 19, 1948 (62 Stat. 83).

(3) The Act of June 30, 1950 (16 U.S.C. 508(b)) authorizes leasing of the hardrock minerals on National Forest lands in Minnesota.

(c) Special acts. (1) Gold, silver or quicksilver in confirmed private land grants are covered by the Act of June 8, 1926 (30 U.S.C. 291-293).

(2) Reserved minerals in lands patented to the State of California for parks or other purposes are covered by the Act of March 3, 1933 (47 Stat. 1487), as amended by the Act of June 5, 1936 (49 Stat. 1482) and the Act of June 29, 1936 (49 Stat. 2026).

(3) National Park Service Areas. Congress authorized mineral leasing, including the leasing of nonleaseable minerals in the manner prescribed by section 10 of the Act of August 4, 1939 (43 U.S.C. 387), in the following national recreation areas:

(i) Lake Mead National Recreation Area—The Act of October 8, 1964 (16 U.S.C. 460n-et seq.);

(ii) Whiskeytown Unit of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area—The Act of November 8, 1965 (16 U.S.C. 460q-et seq.);

(iii) Glen Canyon National Recreation Area—The Act of October 27, 1972 (16 U.S.C. 460dd et seq.).

(4) Shasta-Trinity Units of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area. Section 6 of the Act of November 8, 1965 (16 U.S.C. 460q-et seq.) authorizes mineral leasing, including the leasing of nonleasable minerals in the manner prescribed by section 3 of the Act of September 1, 1949 (30 U.S.C. 192c), on lands within the Shasta-Trinity Units of the Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area.

(5) White Mountains National Recreation Area. Sections 403, 404, and 1312 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 460mm-2 through 460mm-4) authorize the Secretary of the Interior to permit the removal of the nonleasable minerals from lands or interests in lands within the recreation area in the manner described by section 10 of the Act of August 4, 1939, as amended (43 U.S.C. 387), and the removal of leasable minerals from lands or interest in lands within the recreation area in accordance with the mineral leasing laws.

(d) Land management. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) authorizes the management and use of the public lands.

(e) Fees. Section 304 of FLPMA (43 U.S.C. 1734) authorizes the Secretary to establish reasonable filing and service fees for applications and other documents relating to the public lands. The Independent Offices Appropriation Act (31 U.S.C. 9701) authorizes agencies to charge fees to recover the costs of providing services or things of value.

(a) This part applies to minerals other than oil, gas, coal and oil shale, leased under the mineral leasing acts, and to hardrock minerals leasable under Reorganization Plan No. 3 of 1946, on any unclaimed, undeveloped area of available public domain or acquired lands where leasing of these specific minerals is allowed by law. Special areas identified in part 3580 of this title and asphalt on certain lands in Oklahoma also are leased under this part. Check part 3580 to identify any special provisions that apply to those special areas.

(b) This part does not apply to Indian lands or minerals except where expressly noted.

You need to know the following terms, which are used frequently in this part:

Acquired lands means lands or interests in lands, including mineral estates, which the United States obtained through purchase, gift, or condemnation. It includes all lands BLM administers for hardrock mineral leasing other than public domain lands.

Chiefly valuable, for the purposes of this part, means the land is more valuable for the development of sodium, sulphur or potassium than for any non-mineral use of the land.

Hardrock minerals include base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, and precious or semi-precious gemstones. Hardrock minerals do not include coal, oil shale, phosphate, sodium, potassium, or gilsonite deposits. Also, hardrock minerals do not include commodities the government sells such as common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice or cinder. The term hardrock minerals as used here includes mineral deposits that are found in sedimentary and other rocks.

Leasable minerals, for purposes of this part, means the chlorides, sulfates, carbonates, borates, silicates or nitrates of potassium or sodium and related products; sulphur on public lands in the States of Louisiana and New Mexico and on all acquired lands; phosphate, including associated and related minerals; asphalt in certain lands in Oklahoma; and gilsonite (including all vein-type solid hydrocarbons).

MMS means the Minerals Management Service.

Permit means prospecting permit, unless otherwise specified.

Valuable deposit, for the purposes of this part, means an occurrence of minerals of such character that a person of ordinary prudence would be justified in the further expenditure of his or her labor and means, with a reasonable prospect of success in developing a profitable mine.

BLM issues the mineral use authorizations listed below to qualified individuals. Some authorizations are not available for certain commodities. See the subparts referenced in each subsection for more information.

(a) “Prospecting permits” let you explore for leasable mineral deposits on lands where BLM has determined that prospecting is needed to determine the existence of a valuable deposit. See subpart 3505 of this part.

(b) “Exploration licenses” let you explore in areas with known deposits of a leasable mineral to obtain data. With an exploration license, you do not get any preference or other right to a lease. See subpart 3506 of this part.

(c) “Preference right leases” are issued to holders of prospecting permits who, during the term of the permit, demonstrate the discovery of a valuable deposit of the leasable mineral for which BLM issued the permit. There are other requirements. The requirements for mine plans are in subpart 3592 of part 3590 of this chapter. See subpart 3507 of this part.

(d) “Competitive leases” are issued by competitive bidding for known deposits of a leasable mineral. See subpart 3508 of this part.

(e) “Fringe acreage leases” are issued noncompetitively for known deposits of leasable minerals on Federal lands adjacent to existing deposits, when the Federal deposits can be mined only as part of an adjacent operation. See subpart 3510 of this part.

(f) “Lease modifications” add adjacent acreage to a Federal lease. The acreage to be added:

(1) Contains known deposits of the same mineral that can be mined only as part of the mining operation on the original Federal lease; or

(2) Has the following characteristics—

(i) Does not contain known deposits of the same mineral;

(ii) Will be used for surface activities that are necessary in furtherance of recovery of the mineral deposit on the original Federal lease; and

(iii) Had the acreage been included in the original Federal lease at the time of the Federal lease's issuance, the original Federal lease would have been reasonably compact.

(g) “Use permits” are available to holders of phosphate and sodium leases so that they may use the surface of unappropriated and unentered public lands for the proper extraction, treatment, or removal of the phosphate or sodium deposits. See subpart 3516 of this part.

No. Your permit or lease gives you an exclusive right to the mineral, but not to the lands. BLM may allow other uses or disposal of the lands, including leasing of other minerals, if those uses or disposals will not unreasonably interfere with your operation. If BLM issues other permits or leases covering the lands contained within your permit or lease, they will contain suitable stipulations for simultaneous operation based on consideration of safety, environmental protection, conservation, ultimate recovery of the resource, and other factors. You must also make all reasonable efforts to avoid interference with other authorized uses. In cases where the date of the lease is used to determine priority for development and a lease is renewed, BLM will use the effective date of the original lease to determine priority for development.

(a) BLM will not issue you a permit or lease unless it conforms with the decisions, terms and conditions of an applicable comprehensive land use plan.

(b) BLM or the surface management agency will comply with any applicable environmental requirements before issuing you a permit or lease. This may result in conditions on your permit or lease.

(c) BLM will issue permits and leases consistent with any unsuitability designation under part 1600 of this title.

Your lease, permit, or other use authorization is effective the first day of the month after BLM signs it, unless you request in writing and BLM agrees to make it effective the first day of the month in which it is approved. This applies to all leases, licenses, permits, transfers and assignments in this part, unless a specific regulation provides otherwise.

Any party adversely affected by a BLM decision under this part may appeal the decision under parts 4 and 1840 of this title.