2000 Minnesota Statutes

     117.47 Permits; licenses. 

    The commissioner of natural resources may grant permits and 
 licenses or leases on and across lands owned by the state to any 
 corporation or association engaged in or preparing to engage in 
 the business of mining and beneficiating taconite as defined in 
 section 298.001, subdivision 4, or semitaconite as defined in 
 section 298.34, for the purpose of providing the corporation or 
 association necessary easements, rights of way and surface 
 rights over, through and across such lands for the erection and 
 maintenance of pipe lines, pole lines, conduits, sluiceways, 
 roads, railroads and tramways.  The commissioner may grant 
 permits and licenses or leases for flowage rights, rights to 
 transport crude ore, concentrates or waste materials over such 
 state-owned lands, and may lease state-owned lands for the 
 depositing of stripping, lean ores, tailings, or waste products 
 of such business.  Such permits, licenses or leases, may also 
 authorize the use of state-owned lands by such corporation or 
 association for plants and other buildings necessary to the 
 proper carrying on of such business and may grant water rights 
 and other rights requisite to the construction of wharves, 
 piers, breakwaters, or similar facilities necessary to the 
 carrying on of such business or the shipment of the products 
 thereof.  The commissioner may also license the flooding of 
 state lands in connection with any permit or authorization for 
 the use of public waters issued by the legislature or issued by 
 the commissioner pursuant to law. Such permits, licenses, and 
 leases shall be upon such conditions and for such consideration 
 and for such period of time as the commissioner may determine.  
 The county auditor, with the approval of the county board, is 
 authorized to grant permits, licenses and leases for all such 
 purposes across tax-forfeited lands not held by the state free 
 from any trust in favor of any and all taxing districts, upon 
 such conditions and for such consideration and for such period 
 of time as the county board may determine.  Any proceeds from 
 the granting of such permits, licenses or leases shall be 
 apportioned and distributed as other proceeds from the sale or 
 rental of tax-forfeited lands. 

    HIST: 1945 c 275 s 2; 1955 c 619 s 1; 1969 c 1129 art 3 s 1; 
 1979 c 145 s 1; 1999 c 86 art 1 s 26