PARAGUAY.

REPORT OF CONSUL.

No copies of recent mining laws of Paraguay are available. It is believed that this Republic has no laws governing the exploitation of petroleum.

The American Consul on October 23, 1919, made the following observations: According to the mining law of Paraguay, known as Law No. 93, which was passed on September 1, 1914, during Ex-President Schaerer's administration, the Government becomes the owner of all mines that may be opened in the country, except those of lime, rock, and other materials required for construction purposes. Concessions are granted by the Government to private parties for the exploitation of mining projects. The law requires the payment of a tax of $.20 Argentine gold per hectarea (one acre equals about 4/10 of a hectarea) and 5 per cent of the gross proceeds.

This law being rather drastic in the matter of the time limit fixed for exploitations, etc., Ex-President Schaerer, the leading enthusiast on mining developments in Paraguay, thinks that the Paraguayan Congress would grant more liberal terms in concessions for petroleum than is provided for in the general mining law.

The Consul on January 30, 1920, submitted as a resume of the Paraguayan mining law the following:

The Act approved by the Paraguayan Congress on August 24, 1914, “Ley No. 93 De Minas," establishes the rules which govern the granting of concessions for mineral rights in Paraguay. So far no mining operations of any kind have been undertaken since the law went into effect and there are no apparent prospects.

The law provides that any concessionaire to whom a concession may be granted must, within five months from date of concession, make an excavation on the property at least ten meters in extent for the purpose of making the necessary tests, provide for surveys, fix the boundaries of the property covered by the concession, and register the title in the official books of the Ministerio de Interior, in order to establish his legal rights to the grant.

No restrictions, either legislative or administrative, according to the law, are placed on aliens and not on citizens of Paraguay in granting mining rights or concessions, in operating mineral properties or distributing mineral products, or on the sale of mining rights and properties.

The law provides that the state shall be the titular owner of all mineral rights in Paraguay, except those of lime, rock and other materials required for building purposes, and that private parties or concerns may acquire rights to mineral properties through concessions, or permits, granted by the Government. No concessionaire may acquire rights to more than five holdings within the same region; except in the case of iron, coal, or other combustibles for which rights for ten holdings may be acquired.

No important concessions of any character have been granted by the Government of a monopolistic character, and it is hardly probable that any successful developments may be expected under the small concessions that have already been granted, for the reason that the concessions were obtained for the purpose of selling the rights rather than to develop, or exploit, the property.

The law requires the payment of a Government tax of 20 cents Argentina gold per hectarea on all mineral lands for which concession rights are granted and five per cent of the gross proceeds of the mines.

Unit of measure-extension and form of mining concessions_.
Mining taxes

581

581

Relations between the concessionary of a mine and the owner of soil_

590

Art. 1. The following are the object of mining property with the extent determined by the present law:

First. Deposits of mineral or fossilized substances which are susceptible of being industrially utilized, except those specified in the following article.

Third. Water, whenever it is necessary for motive power or any other purpose in mines and reduction works.

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Art. 4. The ownership of mines is separate and distinct from that of the land, or superficial rural property, and the ownership, possession and use of them are transferable according to common law and to the special regulations of the present Code.

Art. 5. Mining property legally acquired is irrevocable and as perpetual as common property and the only reason for its cancelment is the nonpayment of the tax mentioned in article 28 of the present law.

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Art. 6. Concessions of mining property can only be made by the competent authority and in the form determined by the present code.

Art. 7. The ownership of legally acquired mines embraces the right of working them and the free disposal of all substances, which are the object of this kind of ownership, contained within the vertical plans drawn on the sides of the perimeter of the conceded area.

Art. 8. Claims are not susceptible of material division, but mines having two or more claims may be, by unanimous agreement of the parties concerned, and subjecting themselves to the forms and measures established in the present Code.

Art. 9. The Superior Mining Council shall decide, subject to the Government's approval, on doubtful cases relating to the nature of the substance in discussion so as to settle whether mining property may be constituted or not.

Art. 10. All contracts relating to mining property and its products are regulated by common law; but they cannot be cancelled for having made acquisition of property at a lower price than half or less of the real price1 neither shall there be in respect of them a plea of "restitutio in integrum nor the right of parents and other persons substituting themselves in the contract on the same standing as the first acquirer.

CHAPTER II.

PROSPECTING AND EXPLORATION.

Art. 11. Any person or company may devote themselves freely to mining prospecting in uncultivated and unfenced lands, whether they are owned or not. The prospector is obliged to indemnify the owner, when the land is of private possession and damage may have befallen.

Art. 12. The owner's consent is indispensible for prospecting mines in cultivated and fenced grounds.

In case the said owner denies the permission, the local mining authority shall grant license, but collecting beforehand an indemnification for the use of the occupied ground, and a deposit for damages that may befall, all this on a just valuation.

Art. 13. No authority can grant license for prospecting in houses, orchards and gardens.

Art. 14. In no case can prospections be made within towns, villages and cemeteries, or near public roads, canals and railways within a distance of fifty meters, except with license of the political authority; nor within the same distance from isolated buildings, except in those cases where permission has been given by the owner of the building or in his default by the deputation, the report of an expert being previously obtained.

Neither is prospecting allowed within a radius of one thousand meters from all forts and barracks except with the permission of the War Department. Art. 15. Persons or companies intending to execute prospections, requiring a considerable space of time may apply for one or more land concessions, none less than the number of claims fixed in Article 20 nor larger than its decuple. Art. 16. These transitory concessions shall only be granted for one year and can be extended for a year more but shall lapse effectually at the end of that term, not being grantable again to anybody in the same place, before the expiration of five years.

1According to common law if a thing is sold at two or less than two its real value being for instance four, the vendor is entitled to request within a given time, the nullity of the sale.

Art. 17, Concessions referring to exploration, can, in any case, only be granted in respect of disoccupied grounds; and on condition that mining concessions or pending petitions do not exist and ever have existed within their area or within five thousand meters minimum distance.

CHAPTER III.

UNIT OF MEASURE-EXTENSION AND FORM OF MINING CONCESSIONS.

Art. 18. The claim or unit of measure for mining concessions, except in beds mentioned in the following article, is a prismoidial solid of rectangular base with an extension of two hectares, having one side of two hundred meters and the other of one hundred, measured horizontally in any direction which the petitioner may point out and of indefinite depth in the vertical direction.

Art. 19. In placers, coal and petroleum deposits, and analogous ones of gold, platinum, tin, etc., claims shall have a square base with sides two hundred meters long.

Art. 20. The mining concession applied for by the denouncer, may embrace any number of claims up to sixty.

Art. 21. Claims forming together a single concession must be grouped without interruption and form a rectangle whose sides must be in a proportion not exceeding ten to one.

Art. 22. When an unoccupied space, whose form and extension may not allow a claim to be constituted, remains between two or more concessions, this excess shall be granted to the first, amongst the owners of the contiguous mines, who applies for it.

Art. 23. If any other person denounces it, the owners of the adjacent mines shall be preferred for the concession, provided they apply for it in the term of thirty days, to be counted from the date of the notification to them of the judicial registration of the petition.

Art. 24. The spaces referred to shall never be reputed smaller than a claim for the effects of the concession and payment of tax.

CHAPTER IV.

MINING TAXES.

Art. 25. All mining concessions shall pay an annual tax of thirty soles for every claim included within their perimeter.

Art. 26. Payment shall be made in two equal parts every six months, the first ending on 30th June and the second on 31st December. Payment of the tax shall become due from the day on which possession is taken; all fractions of six months being considered as a whole half year.

Receipts for payments shall be given in duplicate if so required by the interested party.

Art. 27. Provisional concessions for the purpose of investigation shall pay a tax of one sol per hectare. The same amount shall be paid in case of prorogation.

Art. 28. Any mine owner omitting payment of the six monthly tax may pay it during the following six months with a surcharge of fifty per cent.

He may also pay it with the same surcharge during the subsequent six months until one month after the official date of the publication of the Register of Mines in which it shall then appear able to be denounced, provided he pays the tax owed during the second six months with a surcharge of one hundred

per cent, and that of the third six months with or without the first surcharge according to the date of said payment.

If after said last term no payment has been made then the mine becomes able to be denounced, but while no petition for it is made, the owner is allowed to recuperate it, during the rest of the last six months, provided he effects the payment of the owed taxes with one hundred per cent of surcharge.

Art. 29. For mines acquired by substitution the payment of tax begins from the moment of the acceptance of the application by the respective deputation. Art. 30. All parties contending on the property of a mine are bound to pay the tax during the lawsuit, without right to any ulterior reclamation.

Any one omitting a six monthly payment and not effecting it in the following six months with the surcharge mentioned in article 28 shall lose all right of being heard in the trial, it being considered as abandoned by him. The abandonment shall be declared as soon as the nonpayment is recorded.

Art. 31. The funds proceeding from the tax established in articles 25, 27, 28, 30 and all others to which the present Code refers, shall be applied:

First. To cover the budget of the Civil and Mining Engineers Special School, of Lima.

Second. To the maintenance of a special engineering body, of the School for mining assistants and overseers and of the Superior Mining Council.

Third. To any purpose tending to the development of mining industry. The management of the said funds corresponds to the Development Department.

CHAPTER V.

MINING ADMINISTRATION AND JURISDICTION.

Art. 32. The administrative and economical mining control corresponds to the Executive Power represented by the respective department, to the Superior Mining Council, to the territorial Deputations and to the functionaries or authorities who may represent them.

Art. 33. The Superior Mining Council shall hold its meetings in the capital of the Republic and is composed of seven members; three, by virtue of office and four titulary ones. Members by virtue of office are, the Minister of Development; the Under Secretary of Development and the Director of the School of Engineers; and the titulary ones two miners, a mining engineer and a lawyer or judge, all appointed by the Government and proposed in lists of three, respectively, by the National Mining Society, the School of Engineers and the Court of Appeal of the judicial district of Lima. The Minister of Development is the President of the Council by virtue of his office.

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The same

Art. 38. There shall be territorial deputations in all mining districts, where the Superior Mining Council believes it convenient to establish them. Council shall also design the deputation's site and the limits of the respective district.

In places where it is not possible to establish a deputation, the Government shall appoint, proposed by the Superior Council, a Delegate and a Substitute who shall discharge the said Deputation's functions.

In places where neither. Deputation nor Delegation exists, their attributions shall be discharged by the judge of the lower court of the Province or by the acting judge as a substitute to him according to the law. If several judges exist, the jurisdiction corresponds to the junior in the branch of civil law. Art. 39. Mining Deputations shall be composed of two Deputies and two substitutes who can be foreigners and may be reelected indefinitely. Half of