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Events/Law or policy · 1947

Materials Act

Law or policy, 1947; common varieties moved under it from 1955, United States.

What happened

The Materials Act of 1947 provides for the disposal of mining materials on US public lands, both saleable and leasable. Under it common varieties such as sand and gravel are sold rather than rented or royalty-bearing. From 1955 common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice and cinders were taken out of the Mining Law and placed under this Act.1,2

Why it matters

It removed common-variety materials from the 1872 Mining Law regime.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Materials Act

    It removed common-variety materials from the 1872 Mining Law regime.1,2

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Where next

Events

Came out ofMineral Leasing ActIn 1947 common materials such as sand and gravel were sold, not claimed.1Led toMining and Minerals Policy ActThe 1970 Act made it federal policy to foster a stable domestic minerals industry.1

Sources

  1. About Mining and Minerals US Bureau of Land Management
  2. Washington, D.C. (item Q61), coordinate location P625 Wikidata

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Super Pit, Kalgoorlie by Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0; Chuquicamata from the ISS by Alexander Gerst (ESA), CC BY-SA 2.0.