Occupation fee.
Section 241
SEC. 241. Occupation fee. — A locator, holder, or occupant of a mining claim shall pay to the Commissioner in advance from the date of the registration of the claim in the Office of the Mining Recorder, and on the same date every year thereafter an annual occupation fee of two pesos a hectare or fractional part thereof, until the lease covering the mining claim shall have been granted. For this purpose, the Office of the Mining Recorder shall submit to the treasurers concerned, a list of the mining claims, including the areas of such claims registered with it. Fifty per centum of all the fees collected under this section shall accrue to the province, and fifty per centum to the municipality in which the mining claims are located: Provided, That in case the mining claims are located in a chartered city, the full amount shall accrue to the city concerned. Failure to pay the occupation fee herein required within thirty days after demand shall cause the mining claims to be open for relocation and lease by other persons qualified to locate and lease the same under the provisions of the Mining Act, in the same manner as if no location of the said mining claims had ever been made, unless the locator, holder, occupant, his heirs, executors, administrators or legal representatives, shall have paid the delinquent occupation fees plus a surcharge of twenty-five per cent for every year of delinquency and have resumed occupation of the claims before relocation by other persons. No lease shall be granted on any mining claim until the occupation fees and surcharges required to be paid under the section shall have been fully paid: Provided, however, That nothing herein contained shall be construed to extend the period of four years within which application for lease of mining claims shall be filed from the date of the recording of the claim in the Office of the Mining Recorder, as provided for in the Mining Act.