Mineral Leasing Act of 1920

Mineral Leasing Act of 1920

Long title	An Act to promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, oil shale, gas, and sodium on the public domain.
Enacted by	the 66th United States Congress
Effective	February 25, 1920
Citations
Public law	Pub. L. 66–146
Statutes at Large	41 Stat. 437
Codification
Titles amended	30 U.S.C.: Mineral Lands and Mining
U.S.C. sections created	30 U.S.C. ch. 3A § 181 et seq.
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 2775 by Reed Smoot (R–UT) on August 15, 1919 Committee consideration by Senate Public Lands, House Rules Passed the Senate on September 3, 1919 (Passed) Passed the House on October 30, 1919 (Passed) Reported by the joint conference committee on November 1, 1919; agreed to by the House on February 10, 1920 (287-13) and by the Senate on February 11, 1920 (Agreed) Signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson on February 25, 1920
United States Supreme Court cases
Wilbur v. United States Ex Rel. Krushnic, 280 U.S. 306 (1930) Ickes v. Virginia-Colorado Development Corp., 295 U.S. 639 (1935) Boesche v. Udall, 373 U.S. 472 (1963) Wallis v. Pan American Petroleum Corp., 384 U.S. 63 (1966) Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. Wilderness Society, 421 U.S. 240 (1975) Andrus v. Shell Oil Co., 446 U.S. 657 (1980) Watt v. Alaska, 451 U.S. 259 (1981) United States Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Assn., No. 18-1584, 590 U.S. ___ (2020)

The Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 30 U.S.C. § 181 et seq. is a United States federal law that authorizes and governs leasing of public lands for developing deposits of coal, petroleum, natural gas and other hydrocarbons, in addition to phosphates, sodium, sulfur, and potassium in the United States. Previous to the act, these materials were subject to mining claims under the General Mining Act of 1872.