BOLIVIA.

CONTENTS.

COMPILATION OF MINING LAWS.

PUBLISHED IN 1916.

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Article 2. The State enjoys the ownership of all deposits, layers, strata or other beds of inorganic substances, such as * petroleum, and other nonmetalliferous substances capable of being used for industrial purposes, whether found in the interior of the earth or on the surface thereof.

Article 6. Whether the surface belongs in private or public ownership, the owner thereof does not lose his right thereto and may enjoy it, except in the event of expropriation; the subsoil which is under the control of the State may, according to circumstances and without any other ground than that of expediency, be abandoned by him to the common enjoyment, ceded to the owner of the soil or transferred to any applicant, by means of a license, subject to provisions to be established.

Article 9. In lands of the public domain and in privately owned lands not enclosed, prospecting may be done without license, and excavations and digging shall be permitted. In privately owned lands that are enclosed no prospecting may be done without the permission of the owner or by judicial license on payment of compensation. Prospecting is forbidden in buildings, orchards, and gardens of public or private ownership.

Article 16. Any person in the exercise of his civil rights may obtain one or more claims by means of a single concession for known minerals, and only 30 claims in the case of recently discovered minerals. The claims which form a concession should be grouped together without interruption, so that the adjoining claims shall be united in the whole length of any of its sides.

Article 21. The person who wishes to obtain one or more holdings, will present his request in person or by attorney before the Prefect of the Department, setting forth clearly: 1. His name, residence, and profession; 2. the name which is to be given to the concession; 3. Punto de partida (either point of discovery of a vein, or, probably, point of commencement of survey) which must be shown either outside or inside, according to the case, determining when possible the direction and distance from some other undoubted and fixed point; 4. the number of claims which he wishes to acquire; 5. the mineral region to which the claims belong, indicating whether it is known as such or whether it has to do with a recently discovered district; 6. the names of the adjoining miners, if there are any, and the respective positions of their claims; 7. The

name of the owner of the surface, if in private ownership. (D(decree) of October 28, 1882, 7.)

NOTE: Applications which do not comply clearly with the conditions of art. 7, Regulation of Oct. 28, 1882 and art. 4. of Decree of May 8, 1900 will not be considered until fault is corrected.

The applicant for a mining claim can not be excused from complying with the obligation to set forth clearly the points contained in art. 21 of the Mineral Compilation, summed up in the formulas attached to the circular of August 1, 1911, without which requirement the petition will not be acted upon. cular of March 6, 1914,)

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According to art. 6 of the law of Dec. 14, 1906 (art. 60 of the compilation) the Prefects are without jurisdiction to alter or change the point of beginning of survey as given by applicant in his first application.

The supreme resolution (Supreme Court decision (?)) of March 9, 1915, declares that the designation of the points or requirements prescribed in the article referred to, may vary. The following is the original text: "It is de clared that modifications may be made, before the publication of a mineral petition, which must be published with the first act of the petition or in the order required for the operations of measuring, establishing boundaries, and securing possession."

The meaning of this resolution is understood to be none other than to permit the correction or modification of errors or accidental omissions which refer to the state, residence or professions of the applicants, to the names of the persons, to the owner of the soil, or other similar circumstances; but not to substantial circumstances, such as variation of the characteristic marks of the location of the place, the modification of the point of beginning, the broadening of the limits of the mine requested, etc., to the prejudice of third parties. Article 23. In addition to the requisites to be complied with in filing the petition for a concession of claims, in accordance with Article 21, in petitions for nonmetalliferous inorganic substances, the substance contained in the land applied for shall be clearly set forth and a sample thereof shall be deposited in the museum located at the point and in its absence in the Department, together with a document authorized by the Secretary of the Prefecture in which all the conditions of filing are set forth.

Article 79. Concessions are ad perpetuam, on payment of a license fee of four bolivianos per hectare.

DECREE NO. 4265 OF JANUARY 15, 1921, REGULATING THE OWNER-
SHIP AND THE EXPLOITATION OF MINES IN BRAZIL.

(Official Gazette, February 10, 1921.)

PART I.

MANAGEMENT OF THE MINES.

CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REGULATIONS.

Art. 1. The provisions of this law are applicable to all mines existing in this country, to all strata of recognized value or of supposedly industrial value, to all works required for their exploitation and to installations and subterranean and superficial workmanship for mining and treating ores.

Art. 2. For the purpose of this law, mines are considered to be not only the mines proper, but layers or strata of natural concentration to be found on the surface or within the earth, composed of valuable substances for industry, which can be exploited with economical advantage, containing or not metallic or semi-metallic elements and the respective ores, combustibles, fossils, gems or precious stones and other substances of important industrial value.

Art. 3. (Applies to quarries only.)

Art. 4. Any doubts arising as to the legal classification of minerals shall be decided by the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, upon hearing the Superior Council of Mines.

CHAPTER II.

OWNERSHIP OF MINES.

Art. 5. A mine constitutes immovable property, an accessory of the soil, but apart from the same.

Sole paragraph. The articles considered as a part of the mine are those permanently destined to its exploitation such as shafts, masonry work, subterranean and superficial constructions, machinery and instruments, animals and vehicles used in the mines, the materials used for working the mines and stored provisions.

Art. 6. The mine owner shall be allowed to separate the mine from the soil in order to lease, mortgage or alienate same and may also do so regarding the ownership of the soil, reserving that of the mine for himself.

Art. 7. In lease contracts, in emphyteuses or in leases at a quit-rent of the soil, the right to exploit the mine, in case it exists, is not transferred but shall always belong to the owner. Any transfer of the right of exploitation shall be subject to a special contract.

Art. 8. The lessee of the mine shall not sub-lease it without the consent of the lessor.

Art. 9. The transfer of the temporary ownership of the mine shall only be realized by handing over same to the original proprietor, but the exploitation of same may be passed over to a third party-free of charge or for a certain price.

Art. 10. (Applies to part-ownership of mines and divisions of the same). Art. 11. (Provides for sale on liquidation of a corporation owner).

Art. 12. In each notary office for the registration of deeds, there shall be a special book for the registering of mines.

The entry in the 'Registry of Mines' ratifies the property, whether wholly by ownership of the soil or partially acquired by right of part-ownership, by discovery or other lawful origin.

Sec. 1. Private parties or legal entities in whose name the mine shall have been registered, shall have the right to work same or to obtain concession for said purpose.

Art. 13. Mines may be disappropriated for industrial exploitation under terms of Art. 590, Secs. 2, 4, of the Civil Code.

Art. 14. In the lease of mines, the suspension of work may cause the annulment of the contract.

Art. 15. The rental or the disposal of lands belonging to the Union shall not include the ownership of mines, except by a special clause.

In cases omitted in this law the property of the mines is regulated by the provisions of the common law.

CHAPTER III.

DISCOVERY OF MINES.

Art. 16. To reveal unequivocal signs of the existence of a new mine or strata shall constitute the discovery of same.

Art. 17. All persons, either national or foreign residing in Brazil, as well as any corporation or company legally constituted, may register the discovery of a mine.

Sec. 1. The registration of a document shall be made by the official in charge of the registry of deeds of each district, based upon a despatch by the judge of said district.

Sec. 2. The document must contain the precise nature of the strata and its topographical position, the name of the owner of the soil and all other indications which shall be required under the provisions of this law.

Sec. 3. A certificate of the terms of said document entered in the Registry of Mines' shall be given, word for word, to the person presenting it, and a limit of one year allowed him for effecting prospects.

Sec. 4. The judge of the district shall send a certificate ex-officio of said document to the Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, at the same time advising the proprietor of the discovery, and in his absence, the curator of absentees, demanding a receipt of said communication.

Sec. 5. The registration of the document shall only give right to prospecting in a limited area, determined by the regulations in accordance with the nature of the strata and other conditions.

Art 18. The same deposit of minerals may be the subject of more than one registration by different parties.

Sec. 1. The first party who makes a declaration shall have preference for a year to make prospects within the area allowed, and the others successively for the same length of time according to the order of the respective dates inscribed.

Sec. 2. Any of the parties may renounce his right to the period allowed in favor of the next in order of inscription.

Sec. 3. The right of prospecting is not transferable.

Sec. 4. If within 60 days from the date of the receipt of Communication referred to in Section 4, Article 17, the owner, the holder, or the part-owner take part in the declaration of mine discovery registration, he shall be given preference for carrying on prospecting, only however within a year from the date of inscription of his document.

Sec. 5. Independently of the communication of the judge, the owner, holder or part-owner inscribed shall have preference over any other party during the same length of time.

CHAPTER IV.

MINE PROSPECTING.

Art. 19. All work having in view the verification of the existence and economical capacity of the mine from the surface excavations to the sounding and opening of shafts and galleries, is as prospecting or sounding.

Art. 20. Prospecting may be effected without order of preference by the following:

(a) The Government of the Union;

(b) The Proprietor;

(c) One or more part-owners in the property pro indiviso.

(d) By a competent third party authorized by the proprietor or by any partowner in the property pro indiviso and by making the declaration, legally constituted.

Art. 21. The prospecting effected by the Government of the Union shall take place after being recognized as of public utility.

Art. 22. The Government shall communicate with the proprietor before commencing to prospect.

In case said proprietor prefers to do so on his own account, a time limit of a year shall be allowed him under the terms of Section 4, Article 18, of this law. This preference not having been verified or the time having elapsed without prospecting having begun, he shall be previously indemnified, if he demands it, of all damages incurred by the use of his property.