1999 Minnesota Statutes

     93.283 Iron ore; prospecting, encouragement.  

    Subdivision 1.    Purposes.  The purpose of this 
 section is to encourage prospecting for iron ores in sections of 
 the state classified as not known to contain merchantable 
 deposits of such ores, in an attempt to assure continued 
 production from Minnesota of a raw material essential to the 
 economic security of the country in time of peace and its 
 defense in time of war.  It shall be liberally construed to 
 carry out that purpose.  

    Subd. 2.    Prospecting permits, mining leases, for 
 certain lands.  All parts of the state of Minnesota except 
 St. Louis, Lake, Itasca, Crow Wing, and Fillmore counties are 
 hereby classified as areas in which no merchantable deposits of 
 iron ore are known to exist and with respect to which 
 prospecting permits and mining leases may be issued hereunder 
 covering lands belonging to the state or lands in the minerals 
 of which the state has an interest.  At any time prior to the 
 receipt of an application for a permit thereon in accordance 
 with the provisions of this section, the commissioner of natural 
 resources may withdraw for such time as deemed fit from the 
 operation of this section any designated townships or portions 
 thereof by publishing notice of such withdrawal in a legal 
 newspaper published in the county in which the lands so 
 withdrawn are situated.  The commissioner of natural resources, 
 with the approval of the executive council, may classify as 
 being subject to this section particular areas in St. Louis, 
 Itasca, Crow Wing, Lake, or Fillmore counties situated more than 
 one mile from any known occurrence of iron ore or iron-bearing 
 formation, and thereupon lands in such areas shall be subject 
 hereto.  

    Subd. 3.    Commissioner of natural resources to issue 
 permits.  The commissioner of natural resources may execute 
 permits to prospect for iron ore under lands belonging to the 
 state or lands in the minerals of which the state has any 
 interest, in trust or otherwise, within the areas classified by 
 or in accordance with subdivision 2 as not known to contain 
 merchantable deposits of iron ore, including lands in 
 conservation areas, game refuges, forest areas, or state or 
 national forests, but excluding lands within any state park, and 
 upon compliance with the provisions of such permits may issue 
 leases for the mining of such ore subject to the conditions 
 hereinafter provided.  The powers and duties vested in or 
 imposed upon such commissioner by this section are hereby 
 declared to be cumulative and in addition to the powers and 
 duties vested in or imposed upon the commissioner by any other 
 law of this state, and such powers and duties so invested or 
 imposed by this section shall not be limited by any other such 
 law.  The commissioner may refuse to issue permits on any lands 
 being used at the time of the application for permit for tree 
 plantation, nursery, administrative purposes or similar uses 
 essential for the operation and maintenance of any state forest 
 area or game refuge, or may impose such conditions upon the 
 issuance of any permit covering lands used for such purposes as 
 the commissioner deems necessary.  

    Subd. 4.    Rights under permit.  Permits hereunder 
 shall confer the same rights to prospect for iron ore on the 
 lands described therein and shall be subject to the same 
 conditions with respect to prospecting and reporting thereon as 
 are provided under section 93.18, with respect to holders of 
 permits granted in accordance therewith, but shall otherwise be 
 in form appropriate to the provisions of this section.  The term 
 of such permit shall be for a period of two years and the work 
 of prospecting thereunder shall begin within six months from the 
 date thereof.  It shall contain provisions requiring the payment 
 of any damages sustained by the state to timber, structures or 
 other improvements belonging to the state.  The requirements for 
 prospecting work thereunder may be satisfied by work performed 
 upon either the lands covered by the permit or on lands included 
 in other permits issued to the same permit holder hereunder in 
 the same general mineral formation or area as those covered by 
 the permit and in the same section according to the United 
 States Government survey or in an adjoining section; provided 
 work done under one permit cannot be credited upon more than 
 three additional permits hereunder located in the same section 
 or one adjoining section.  In case the prospecting work is not 
 performed on the lands covered by the permit the holder's 
 reports on the progress of the work shall show work performed on 
 other lands within the limitations above set forth sufficient to 
 constitute compliance with the foregoing provisions.  

    Subd. 5.    Applications, fees.  Applications for 
 permit to prospect for iron ore hereunder shall be presented to 
 the commissioner of natural resources either by the applicant or 
 agent thereof in person or by mail.  The application shall 
 describe the lands to be embraced in the permit, which shall 
 consist of contiguous descriptions and shall not exceed 160 
 acres unless some of the descriptions are fractional 
 subdivisions, in which case the acreage may exceed that number 
 by not more than the amount by which any one or more of such 
 fractional subdivisions shall exceed 40 acres each.  The lands 
 covered by any such permit are herein referred to as a "mining 
 unit," and no such mining unit shall contain lands belonging to 
 more than one permanent trust fund, or shall intermingle 
 tax-forfeited lands not held in trust for taxing districts with 
 tax-forfeited lands held in trust for taxing districts, or 
 intermingle either with permanent trust fund lands. Each 
 application shall be accompanied by a certified check or a 
 cashier's check on a national or state bank in Minnesota, 
 payable to the state treasurer, in the sum of $50 as fee for the 
 permit, and a like check in the sum of $200 as a guarantee that 
 the applicant will carry out and perform in good faith all the 
 covenants set out in the permit.  The commissioner of natural 
 resources shall endorse upon each application the exact time of 
 presentation and shall preserve the same in the office of the 
 commissioner.  The first applicant for permit on any land whose 
 application hereunder, with accompanying fees, is filed with the 
 commissioner of natural resources in accordance herewith shall 
 be entitled to receive a permit hereunder.  

    Subd. 6.    Permit holders, receipt of mining leases.  
 At any time prior to the expiration of any such permit, if the 
 commissioner shall determine that all the terms and conditions 
 of the permit and applicable provisions of law have been 
 complied with, the original holder or any assignee thereof shall 
 have the right to receive from the commissioner of natural 
 resources a mining lease, which shall bind the state and the 
 person to whom it shall be issued to the mutual observance of 
 the obligations and conditions thereof, and the mining lease 
 shall be in the form set forth in section 93.20, and require the 
 payment of the royalties set forth in Laws 1941, chapter 546, 
 section 5, as originally enacted, except that the royalties 
 shall be modified so as to comply with and be subject to the 
 provisions of section 93.20, subdivision 9, as amended by Laws 
 1951, chapter 616, or any subsequent amendment thereof in force 
 at the time of submission of the application for the permit, and 
 also except that the rental shall be modified so as to provide 
 that the annual rental for that part of the first calendar year 
 remaining after the effective date of the lease and for the four 
 succeeding calendar years shall be at the rate of $500 per 
 calendar year, and the annual rate of rental thereafter shall be 
 $5,000 per calendar year.  As a condition precedent to the 
 issuing of such mining lease the holder of the permit shall file 
 a full report, properly verified, of all work of exploration 
 done under the permit, or an affidavit in case no work was done, 
 stating such facts, and pay to the state treasurer a sum of 
 money based on the quarterly royalty payment of $125 for the 
 first quarter, as set out in the lease, in the ratio that the 
 unexpired portion of the quarter bears to the full quarter.  

    Subd. 7.    Leases on tax-forfeited lands.  In the 
 event that any lands covered by any lease hereunder shall be 
 tax-forfeited lands held by the state in trust for the taxing 
 districts, the rentals and royalties paid under any such permit 
 or lease shall be distributed annually by the commissioner of 
 finance on the first day of September as follows:  20 percent to 
 the general fund of the state, and 80 percent to the respective 
 counties in which the lands lie, to be apportioned among the 
 taxing districts interested therein as follows: county, 
 three-ninths; town or city, two-ninths; and school district, 
 four-ninths.  In the event that with respect to any lands leased 
 hereunder the state owns or has an interest in the minerals 
 only, without ownership of the surface of such lands, such 
 lessee shall make proper compensation to the owner of the 
 surface rights for any damage caused thereto.  In the event that 
 the state shall own only a fractional undivided interest in the 
 minerals in any land leased hereunder, the royalty and annual 
 rental to be paid the state under such lease shall be such 
 fractional part of the royalty or annual rental payable in the 
 event the state had the entire interest in said minerals that 
 the interest owned by the state bears to the entire interest 
 therein.  Except as herein otherwise provided, royalty and 
 rental payable hereunder shall be paid into the same fund as if 
 the particular lands had been leased or sold under existing laws.

    There is hereby appropriated to such persons or political 
 subdivisions as are entitled herein to such payments, from the 
 fund or account in the state treasury to which the money was 
 credited, an amount sufficient to make the payment.  

    HIST: 1943 c 277; 1951 c 171 s 1-4; 1953 c 551 s 1,2; 1959 c 
 158 s 10; 1969 c 399 s 1; 1969 c 1129 art 10 s 2; 1973 c 123 art 
 5 s 7; 1973 c 492 s 14; 1986 c 444