---
kind: "section"
citation: "50 U.S.C. § 3994"
title: "50"
title_heading: "War and National Defense"
number: "3994"
heading: "Mining claims"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/50/3994"
units:
  - "Chapter 50 — Servicemembers Civil Relief"
  - "Subchapter V — Taxes and Public Lands"
---

# §3994. Mining claims

- (a) **Requirements suspended—** The provisions of [section 28 of title 30](/usc/30/28.md) specified in [subsection (b)](#b) shall not apply to a [servicemember](/usc/50/3911.md?p=1)’s claims or interests in claims, regularly located and recorded, during a [period of military service](/usc/50/3911.md?p=3) and 180 days thereafter, or during any period of hospitalization or rehabilitation due to injuries or disabilities incurred in the line of duty.
- (b) **Requirements—** The provisions in [section 28 of title 30](/usc/30/28.md) that shall not apply under [subsection (a)](#a) are those which require that on each mining claim located after May 10, 1872, and until a patent has been issued for such claim, not less than $100 worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during each year.
- (c) **Period of protection from forfeiture—** A mining claim or an interest in a claim owned by a [servicemember](/usc/50/3911.md?p=1) that has been regularly located and recorded shall not be subject to forfeiture for nonperformance of annual assessments during the [period of military service](/usc/50/3911.md?p=3) and for 180 days thereafter, or for any period of hospitalization or rehabilitation described in [subsection (a)](#a).
- (d) **Filing requirement—** In order to obtain the protections of this section, the claimant of a mining location shall, before the end of the assessment year in which [military service](/usc/50/3911.md?p=2) is begun or within 60 days after the end of such assessment year, cause to be filed in the office where the location notice or certificate is recorded a notice communicating the fact of [military service](/usc/50/3911.md?p=2) and the desire to hold the mining claim under this section.

## Source credit

(Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, title V, § 504, as added Pub. L. 108–189, § 1, Dec. 19, 2003, 117 Stat. 2856.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 564 of the former Appendix to this title prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

### Prior Provisions

A prior section 504 of act Oct. 17, 1940, ch. 888, art. V, 54 Stat. 1187; Pub. L. 102–12, § 9(19), Mar. 18, 1991, 105 Stat. 40, related to desert-land entries and the suspension of requirements, prior to the general amendment of this Act by Pub. L. 108–189. See section 3993 of this title.

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section applicable to any case not final before Dec. 19, 2003, see section 3 of Pub. L. 108–189, set out as a note under section 3901 of this title.