The procedures with respect to notice of such a hearing and the conduct thereof, and in respect to appeals, shall follow the appeals and contests of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management (part 1850 of this title) relating to contests or protests affecting public lands of the United States so far as they are applicable.

If any verified statement shall be filed by a mining claimant then the administrative law judge or the Director, as may be appropriate, shall fix a time and place for a hearing to determine the validity and effectiveness of any right or title to or interest in or under such mining claim which the mining claimant may assert contrary to or in conflict with the limitations or restrictions specified in section 4 of the Act as to unpatented mining claims located after its enactment. The administrative law judge shall notify the department or agency and all mining claimants entitled to notice as the result of the filing of such verified statement of the time and place of such hearing at least 30 days in advance thereof. The notice of hearing shall contain a statement specifying the issues upon which evidence will be submitted at the hearing. Such hearing shall be held in the county where the lands in question, or parts thereof, are located unless the mining claimant agrees otherwise.

Where verified statements are filed asserting rights to an aggregate of more than twenty mining claims, any single hearing shall be limited to a maximum of twenty mining claims unless the parties affected shall otherwise stipulate and as many separate hearings shall be set as shall be necessary to comply with section 5(c) of the Act. If at any time prior to a hearing the department or agency requesting publication of notice and any person filing a verified statement pursuant to such notice shall so stipulate, then to the extent so stipulated, but only to such extent, no hearing shall be held with respect to rights asserted under that verified statement, and to the extent defined by the stipulation the rights asserted under that verified statement shall be deemed to be unaffected by the notice published pursuant to that request.

(a) If the final decision rendered in any hearing held pursuant to section 5 of the Act shall affirm the validity and effectiveness of any mining claimant's right or interest under a mining claim asserted in accordance with the provisions of that section, then no subsequent proceedings under section 5 of the act shall have any force or effect upon the so-affirmed right or interest of such mining claimant under such mining claim.

(b) If it is finally determined as the result of such a hearing that the claimant has no right or title to or interest in or under his mining claim which he may assert contrary to or in conflict with the limitations and restrictions specified in section 4 of the act, then those limitations and restrictions shall apply with respect to such mining claim.