(b) In carrying out these policies small mining enterprises shall be encouraged to apply for aid under this Act, and for this purpose the Secretary of the Interior shall provide small mining enterprises with full information concerning this Act, and shall make special provision for expeditious handling of applications from small mining enterprises.

SEC. 3. A Minerals Conservation Board, consisting of the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Secretary of the Treasury, is hereby established. The Secretary of the Interior shall be the executive chairman of the Board. The members of the Board may delegate their powers, functions, and duties, including those relating to appeals, to suitable officers of their respective agencies.

SEC. 4. To carry out the policy of this Act, the Board shall by regulation determine

(a) the amount of appropriated money to be allocated to the aid of exploration, on the one hand, and to the aid of conservation, on the other hand;

(b) the amount of appropriated money to be allocated to the aid of exploration for any metal or mineral or group of metals or minerals, as specified by the Board;

(c) the amount of appropriated money to be allocated to the aid of conservation of any metal or mineral or group of metals or minerals, as specified by the Board;

(d) the maximum price or the minimum price, or both, which may be paid for the purchase of any metal or mineral for conservation: Provided, That adequate allowance shall be made for depletion and depreciation in computing costs of operation or maintenance;

(e) the maximum amount or the minimum amount, or both, which may be paid on account of participation in the costs of maintenance for conservation with respect to any metal or mineral;

(f) the maximum or the minimum amount, or both, which may be paid to any producer or class of producers on account of exploration for any metal or mineral or group of metals or minerals, and the ratio which the Government's contribution for exploration shall bear to the contribution of any producer or class of producers for exploration;

(g) the particular metals or minerals or ores thereof and specifications therefor that shall be eligible for aid for conservation;

(h) the particular metals or minerals that shall be eligible for aid for exploration; and

(i) the time limits or dates within which contracts for aid for conservation shall terminate.

SEC. 5. (a) The Board shall promulgate such rules and regulations as may be necessary to carry out its functions and duties under this Act, and to provide fair and equitable treatment for all applicants for aid.

(b) The Secretary, subject to the rules and regulations of the Board, may prescribe rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of this Act and which must be complied with by applicants for contracts under the provisions of this Act.

(c) The Secretary may delegate any of his functions under this Act.

(d) All rules and regulations issued under the authority contained in this section shall be published in the Federal Register.

SEC. 6. (a) Any producer may file with the Secretary an application for financial aid in carrying out a specified project for exploration or financial aid to conserve a deposit of ores or minerals. An application to conserve may be either for aid by participating in the costs of maintaining the property in stand-by condition or by purchasing all or any part of the metals or minerals resulting from production from such deposit. The application and the project for aid disclosed by the application must conform to the express policy and provisions of this Act and with the rules and regulations of the Board and of the Secretary: Provided, however, That simple contracts covering exploration projects shall be awarded upon application to small base metal mines and such contracts shall provide for the payment by the United States of one-half of the total reasonable costs of all tunnels, shafts, winzes, and raises in such a mine if the application or examination discloses that there is a reasonable promise of developing unknown or undeveloped sources of metals or minerals. All contracts covering exploration projects shall contain provisions for repayment to the United States of sums paid by the United States pursuant thereto, liability for such repayment to be limited to payment of a reasonable portion of profits accruing from production resulting from such exploration.

(b) The Secretary shall cause qualified mining engineers, geologists, and any other necessary technicians to make examination of and to report on each application, and to certify it to the Secretary either for acceptance, as presented or subject to specified modifications, or for rejection. In the case of a project for exploration, the examining experts shall certify whether the project offers reasonable promise of discovering unknown or undeveloped sources of metals or minerals. In the case of a project for aid to conserve a deposit of ores or minerals, either by participating in the costs of maintaining the property in stand-by condition or by purchasing all or any part of the metals or minerals resulting from production from such deposit, the examining experts, considering economic and practical factors, shall certify whether the project offers reasonable promise of maintaining in stand-by condition or in production, as the case may be, a property the production from which would, in the absence of financial aid by the United States, be discontinued or remain discontinued under such circumstances as to make it probable that for economic or technical reasons such production would not or could not be resumed when needed for the national economy or security.

(c) The Secretary shall either accept and approve the application, subject to any modification therein which he may require, or he shall reject it: Provided, That if the Secretary's action on the application conflicts with the recommendation and certification of the examining experts, he shall refer the application to the Board; and the Board shall either confirm and approve the action of the Secretary, or shall reverse it, or shall direct the Secretary to reconsider it. Confirmation or reversal of the Secretary's action by the Board shall be final, and direction to reconsider shall place the application in the same status it was in before action upon it by the Secretary. If the Secretary accepts the applica tion, either in its original or modified form, the terms of the application and acceptance shall be merged in a formal, written contract. Any applicant who is dissatisfied with the decision of the Secretary upon his application, may at any time within thirty days after receipt of notice of the decision, unless further time is granted by the Board, appeal to the Board, and the Board, as expeditiously as possible, shall review the entire matter, make its findings thereon, and notify the applicant of its decision, which shall be final.

(d) All metals or minerals purchased under the provisions of this section, or such equivalent quantities thereof as may be permitted by the contract with the producer, shall be delivered by the producer to and shall be received by the Administrator of General Services at such places and times as may be provided in the contract. The Administrator shall from time to time, and in any event before selling them in the open market, notify the Munitions Board of the inventory of metals or minerals held by him under the provisions of this Act and shall continue to hold all metals or minerals received by him under this Act until at least sixty days after he has given the Munitions Board notice that they are so held. The Munitions Board may, as long as any such metals or minerals are held by the Administrator, (1) direct the Administrator to transfer any of them to the national security stock pile in accordance with the provisions of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act, as amended (53 Stat. 811, 60 Stat. 596), or (2) within sixty days after such notice from the Administrator direct him to hold any such metals or minerals listed in the notice until sixty days after the next succeeding apropriation for purchases for the stock pile has become available. Unless notified by the Munitions Board to either transfer any of such metals or minerals or to continue to hold them as provided in this subsection, the Administrator shall sell them in the open market if and when open-market prices will return to the Government at least the approximate average price paid by the Government for the metals or minerals, and only in such quantities as will not materially depress the market. No metal or mineral shall be transferred into the national security stock pile under the provisions of this Act unless the material has been found to be strategic and critical as provided in the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act, and meets established specifications as to quality and degree of refinement or processing, and unless such transfer is consistent with the current stock-piling procurement program of the Munitions Board. All moneys received by the Administrator of General Services from such sales in the open market shall be for deposit in miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury, and any transfer of metals or minerals to the national security stock pile shall be covered by a transfer of funds from appropriations available for purchases for the stock pile to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury in amounts approximating what

the cost of the metals or minerals would have been if purchased in the oper market at the time of transfer.

(e) All contracts entered into under the provisions of this section-(1) shall contain an express provision that they are subject to the availability of appropriated money; and (2) may be entered into without regard to sections 3648and 3709 of the Revised Statutes, as amended, or other provisions of law prescribing the manner of making contracts on behalf of the United States.

(f) No contracts shall be entered into under the provisions of this section for a period exceeding two years or after the expiration of three years from the effective date of this Act.

SEC. 7. As used in this Act

(a) "Secretary", standing by itself, means the Secretary of the Interior. (b) "Administrator" means the Administrator of General Services. (c) "Board" means the Minerals Conservation Board.

(d) "Exploration" means exploration in the United States for unknown or undeveloped sources of metals or minerals, including undeveloped extensions of known deposits, conducted from the surface or underground, by surface trenching, core or churn drilling, tunnels, raises, winzes, or shafts, including recognized and sound procedures for obtaining pertinent geological information, and including metallurgical research on processes for the production of such metals or minerals.

(e) "Production" means the production of ores or minerals from mines in the United States, or from tailings, dumps, slags, or residues of such mines, which the Secretary determines would, in the absence of financial aid by the United States, be discontinued or remain discontinued under such circumstances with respect to each particular mine as to make it probable that for economic or technical reasons such production would not or could not be resumed promptly when needed for the national economy or security.

(f) "Small base metal mines" means mines or deposits of ores primarily producing or which in the course of conducting an exploration project primarily produce lead, zinc, or copper ores, or ores containing a combination of such metals, the average aggregate monthly production of which does not exceed 100 tons of lead, zinc, and copper metal combined.

(g) "Producer" means any person or persons or legal entity by whom or for whose account and interest exploration, maintenance, or production is to be or is being performed.

(h) "United States", when used in a geographical sense, means the United States and its Territories and possessions.

SEC. 8. This Act shall not be construed as superseding or amending the Atomic Energy Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 755), as amended.

SEC. 9. There is hereby authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $80,000,000 annually for carrying out the provisions of this Act, including payments to producers for exploration, maintenance, and production, and the costs of administration, such funds to remain available until expended. Passed the Senate October 6 (legislative day, September 3), 1949.

LESLIE L. BIFFLE,
Secretary.

The CHAIRMAN. I have asked Mr. Engle, who has followed this matter closely, to preside except for a short period of time. Mr. Engle, will you take the chair?

We have a report from the Department on H. R. 6110.1 Mr. Ragan, if you wish, you might read this report.

Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Chairman?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

Mr. ASPINALL. I would suggest that we have copies of H. R. 6110 at the same time we are considering S. 2105.

The CHAIRMAN. That will be fine.

Mr. D'EWART. Mr. Chairman, so that the record will be clear, I understand that S. 2105 has been referred to this committee for study?

1 COMMITTEE NOTE.-H. R. 6110 is identical to S. 2105 as reported to the Senate by Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs. H. R. 6110 is presented as exhibit 1, p. 77, of the appendix.

The CHAIRMAN. It has not been referred to this committee yet because of the fact that we reported other bills and they cross-indexed it. It will probably be referred today, but we did not want to lose time.

Mr. D'EWART. Is there any opportunity to get a copy of the Senate hearings on the bill, for the use of this committee?

The CHAIRMAN. I do not know whether the Senate hearings are available yet or not.

Mr. ENGLE. I wonder if we could have the report of the Department of the Interior on H. R. 6110, which is the House equivalent of S. 2105, read to the committee?

Mr. CRAWFORD. Mr. Chairman, may I ask Mr. Engle a question on that point?

Is H. R. 6110 the same as S. 2105, or did the Senate make some amendments?

Mr. ENGLE. The Senate made some changes in it.

Mr. CRAWFORD. May I ask you western gentlemen this question: Is S. 2105 as amended and passed by the Senate generally acceptable to you gentlemen?

Mr. ENGLE. For my own personal attitude, it is a very weak crutch for the mining industry, but it appears to be the only legislation we can obtain at this time.

Mr. CRAWFORD. Let me ask you another question. You have probably analyzed it quite properly, but what chance have we of getting any kind of bill other than what the Senate has approved passed, if these reports we hear are substantially correct, to the effect that we will probably recess at the end of this week or early next week? What chance have we unless we accept the Senate bill?

Mr. ENGLE. That is a very pertinent question.

Mr. CRAWFORD. I want to get the reaction of you western men on that.

Mr. ENGLE. It depends on how fast we move. If we tinker with this bill much, we are not going to get any bill. Even if we tinker only so much that we have to go to conference, we might not get anything at all.

I think we could probably make some changes. There is one amendment which was put in on the floor of the Senate to which all the western people, so far as I know, object, and to which the Department gives no particular endorsement. That is an amendment which was added by Senator Cordon.

Except for the striking out of that amendment, I doubt if there is very much that could be done to this bill which would not alter the basic provisions of it or change its basic principle.

To answer your question specifically, if we amend it very much we are not going to get a bill this session.

The CHAIRMAN. What did the Cordon amendment do, roughly? Mr. ENGLE. The Cordon amendment provides that after moneys for exploration are advanced, if the miner finds ores from which he earns a profit, whenever such ores are mined he will have to pay back the amount of money advanced, which administratively is impossible; and, in the second place, it would overhang a miner's property with some kind of nebulous and undetermined obligation for an undeter

mined time in an undetermined amount and at undetermined interest for undetermined purposes.

Mr. D'EWART. I have a copy of the amendment before me. If you would like, I could read it.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Engle, will you please take charge? We will try to get a quorum here, and meanwhile I will be conferring with the Parliamentarian.

Mr. MURDOCK. Mr. Chairman, may we have the Cordon amendment read?

Mr. ENGLE. Yes.

Mr. D'EWART (reading):

All contracts covering exploration projects shall contain provisions for repayment to the United States of sums paid by the United States pursuant thereto, liability for such repayment to be limited to payment of a reasonable portion of profits accruing from production resulting from such exploration.

Mr. MURDOCK. Mr. Chairman, may I say that I have here a letter which I have just received from the Byrd Mining Co. of Tucson, Ariz., objecting to that amendment. I think that ought to be made a part of the record.

(The letter is as follows:)

Mr. WHITE. I would like to remind the chairman, with regard to the parliamentary procedure, that if you make one single change in this bill from what the Senate version is you will have to go to conference, and if you go to conference we might as well have our bill in the shape we want it, and let the conferees fight it out.

If you make one change we might as well have a bill just the way we would like to have it, and let the conferees settle it.

If you make no change at all then you can expedite it, and you could accept the Senate version.

Mr. ENGLE. We could have the report of the Department of the Interior read, and perhaps that would be a good basis for clarifying our discussion here. Mr. Ragan, will you read that report?

Mr. RAGAN (the clerk). Yes.

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington 25, D. C., October 10, 1949. MY DEAR MR. PETERSON: In your letter of August 25 you ask for a report on H. R. 6110, a bill to stimulate exploration for and conservation of strategic and critical ores, metals, and minerals, and for other purposes.

It is the opinion of this Department that H. R. 6110 is, in general, an appropriate and adequate measure for providing a system of incentives to encourage private industry to explore for and to conserve deposits of strategic, critical, and essential mineral resources. The workability and clarity of the bill, however, could be improved by certain changes in matters of detail and by the correction of certain clerical errors. If these flaws are removed by amendment, this Department would strongly favor the enactment of H. R. 6110.

Two major purposes are embodied in this measure. The first is to stimulate exploration for metals and minerals. The second is to promote conservation of mineral resources by maintaining either in stand-by condition or in production submarginal properties containing valuable minerals or ores the production of which would, in the absence of financial aid by the United States, be discontinued or remain discontinued under such circumstances as to make it probable that for economic or technical reasons such production would not or could not be resumed when needed for the national economy or security. Exploration would be promoted by direct participation by the Government in the costs of exploration projects. Conservation would be accomplished either by contributing to the costs of maintaining properties in stand-by condition or by purchasing the products of submarginal mines at prices that would enable them to continue in production.