Show oil gas leases conflict with uranium mining the present jeopardy of tile the rights of uranium miners to develop uranium ore deposits in areas embraced by federal oil and gas leases may be resolved by interpretation terp of the authority con ori on the atomic energy commission by the atomic en 1 ergy act of 1946 frank H mcpherson manager colorado raw materials office said today the commission has been studying the problem in cooperation with the department of the interior with the objective of protecting the interest of the uranium miners with no substantial change in the conduct of their mining operations mr me L 1 pherson has i been advised by the t h division of raw materials in j washington that it appears likely that hat a solution will be reached within the next 60 days the commission hopes to accomplish this by use of its authority under the atomic energy act as no immediate release seems possible under an interpretation of the mining laws this problem which has arisen in connection with mining laws and procedures in effect since long before the commencement of f the atomic energy program is is a matter of great concern to the commission as well as to the uranium miners on the colorado plateau under the mining law of 1872 provision was made for mineral entry and location on the public domain as implemented by procedures established by the separate mining districts in 1920 th the e mineral leasing act was p passed a I 1 whereby the secretary of the interior was empowered to lease public domain land for extraction of specific non nonmetallic minerals including oil and gas the department of the interior in its land decisions has uniformly held that a valid mineral claim cannot be staked on land covered by a preexisting pre existing lease issuer under the leasing act since metallic and nonmetallic minerals were seldom found in the same place the conflict did not give rise to frequent problems it now appears however that thal urani uranium urn deposits are io in many stances instances in found in areas e embraced by byril oil and gas leases |