---
title: O.C.G.A. § 12-4-100. Licenses to dig, mine, and remove phosphate deposits; restrictions on license holders.
collection: code
id: 12-4-100
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 12-4-100 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-100
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-100.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-100/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t12-(v10)-2021-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=67595359_0#page=342
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-84.md
next: https://georgiacommons.org/code/12-4-101.md
index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: CONSERVATION AND NATURAL RESOURCES / MINERAL RESOURCES AND CAVES / PHOSPHATES AND GOLD / PHOSPHATES
---

# O.C.G.A. § 12-4-100. Licenses to dig, mine, and remove phosphate deposits; restrictions on license holders.

Whenever any person discovers phosphate rock or phosphatic deposits in the navigable streams or waters of this state or in any public land on their banks or margins and files with the Secretary of State notice of such discovery and a description of the location thereof, he shall be entitled to receive from the Secretary of State a license giving him or his assigns the exclusive right, for ten years from the date of the license, of digging, mining, and removing from such location and from an area for a distance of five miles in any or all directions therefrom the phosphate rock and phosphatic deposits that may be found therein, provided that persons receiving or holding such licenses shall in no way interfere with the free navigation of the streams and waters or the private rights of any citizen residing on or owning the lands upon the banks of such navigable rivers and waters; provided, further, that as long as the license remains in effect, no person, natural or artificial, shall have the privilege of locating a claim within 20 miles of any other claim for which he has received a license.

## History

Ga. L. 1884-85, p. 125, § 1; Civil Code 1895, § 1726; Civil Code 1910, § 1977; Code 1933, § 43-401.