PART I.

Preliminary.

1. —This Act may be cited as the Minerals Development Act, 1940.

2. —In this Act—

the expression “the Minister” means the Minister for Industry and Commerce;

the expression “the Land Commission” means the Irish Land Commission;

the expression “the Act of 1931” means the Mines and Minerals Act, 1931 (No. 54 of 1931);

the expression “land purchase annuity” means a land purchase annuity payable under the Land Purchase Acts to the Land Commission;

the word “rent” includes any periodical payment in the nature of rent;

the expression “royalty rent” means a rent calculated by reference to the quantity, price, or value of minerals gotten;

the word “surface”, when used in relation to land, includes any buildings, works, or things erected, constructed or growing on such land;

the word “working”, when used in relation to minerals, includes digging, searching for, mining, getting, raising, taking, carrying away, treating, and converting such minerals, and cognate words shall be construed accordingly;

the expression “exclusive mining right” means a right of working minerals vested in any person exclusive of any other person;

the expression “scheduled mineral” means any substance mentioned in the Schedule to this Act;

the expression “mineral compound” means any substance formed by the chemical combination of one scheduled mineral with any other such mineral;

the expression “mineral substance” means any substance of a similar nature to any scheduled mineral;

the word “prescribed” means prescribed by regulations made by the Minister under this Act.

3. —In this Act (save where the context otherwise requires) the word “minerals” means all substances (other than the agricultural surface of the ground and other than turf or peat) in, on, or under land, whether obtainable by underground or by surface working, and includes all mines, whether they are or are not already opened or in work, and also includes the cubic space occupied or formerly occupied by minerals, and, for greater certainty but without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing, the said word includes all scheduled minerals.

4. —(1) Every State mining right to which this section applies shall include and be deemed always to have included a right to work scheduled minerals, mineral compounds, and mineral sub-stances within the meaning of this Act, and in this Act, the word “minerals”, when used in relation to any such State mining right, shall be construed accordingly.

(2) In this section, the expression “State mining right to which this section applies” means any such exclusive right of mining and taking minerals, and digging and searching for minerals as is mentioned in sub-section (3) of section 13 of the Irish Land Act, 1903, or in sub-section (5) of section 45 of the Land Act, 1923 (No. 42 of 1923), which is, at the passing of this Act, or becomes, after such passing, vested in the State, either by virtue of the said sub-section (3), as amended by section 2 of the Act of 1931 and adapted in consequence of the enactment of the Constitution, or by virtue of the said sub-section (5) as so adapted.

(3) Notwithstanding the repeal by this Act of the Act of 1931, the following enactments, that is to say:—

(a) the second proviso to sub-section (3) of section 13 of the Irish Land Act, 1903,

(b) sub-section (4) of the said section 13 (so far only as relates to State mining rights to which this section applies),

(c) section 1 of the Irish Land Act, 1907, and

(d) section 37 of the Irish Land Act, 1909,

shall continue to apply to any letting, lease, sale or demise of any State mining right to which this section applies made by the Land Commission before the passing of the Act of 1931.

5. —The following minerals and exclusive mining rights shall be State minerals for the purposes of this Act and the expression “State minerals” shall in this Act be construed accordingly, that is to say:—

(a) any minerals and any exclusive mining right which, at the date of the passing of this Act, belong to or are the property of the State or the People, and are vested (subject to any lease granted under the Act of 1931) in the State or in any Minister of State;

(b) any minerals and any exclusive mining right which, on or after the passing of this Act become, by any means, the property of or vested in the State or the People or become vested in a Minister of State, as on and from the date upon which they become such property or become so vested;

(c) without prejudice to the generality of the next preceding paragraph of this section, any minerals or any exclusive mining right which become vested in the Minister by virtue of a minerals acquisition order for the time being in force made under the provisions of Part III of this Act, for so long as such minerals or such exclusive right shall be so vested;

(d) notwithstanding anything contained in the Foreshore Act, 1933 (No. 12 of 1933), and without prejudice to the generality of paragraphs (a) and (b) of this section, any minerals lying on or under foreshore belonging to the State within the meaning of that Act, as adapted in consequence of the enactment of the Constitution;

(e) without prejudice to the generality of paragraph (a) and (b) of this section, all mines of gold and silver.

6. —The following rights shall be ancillary rights for the purposes of this Act, and, in this Act, the expression “ancillary rights” shall be construed accordingly, that is to say:—

(a) a right to let down the surface including a right to let down superincumbent or adjacent strata up to and including the surface;

(b) a right of air-way, shaft-way, or surface or underground way-leave, or other right for the purpose of access to or conveyance of minerals or machinery or the ventilation or drainage or working of mines;

(c) a right to construct, operate and maintain roads and railways for the conveyance of minerals from any mine to any existing road or railway system and for that purpose to use and occupy land and to exercise any right in or over land or water or in or over any public road;

(d) a right to use and occupy the surface of land for the erection of crushing and dressing mills, washeries, coke ovens, railways, aerial rope ways, aerial tramways, by-product works or brick making or other works, or for dwellings for persons employed in connection with the working of minerals or with any such works as aforesaid;

(e) a right to a supply of water or other substances in connection with the working of minerals;

(f) a right to dispose in a particular manner of water or other liquid matter obtained from mines or any byproduct works;

(g) a right to dispose in a particular manner of waste products obtained in connection with the working of minerals;

(h) a right to dam or divert any river, or watercourse, including an artificial watercourse;

(i) a right to divert sewers, watermains, and pipes;

(j) a right to divert a public road, street, or way, or a private way, and to substitute for an existing bridge another bridge on a different site;

(k) a right to divert a railway or a tramway;

(l) a right to demolish buildings which impede the proper working of any minerals.