30 U.S.C. § 47 — Impairment of rights or interests in certain mining property

This section is a protection clause. It says that nothing in a specific list of mining statutes — sections 21, 22 to 24, 26 to 28, 29, 30, 33 to 48, 50 to 52, and 71 to 76 of this title, plus section 661 of title 43 — can be read to take away rights or interests in mining property. This protection covers rights and interests that were acquired under laws that were in force before July 9, 1870. The section also protects a separate, older law: the Act that gave A. Sutro the right-of-way and other privileges to build a draining and exploring tunnel to the Comstock lode in Nevada, approved July 25, 1866. That 1866 grant to Sutro stays in effect no matter what the listed mining statutes say.