Jurisprudential and Legal status of in private land mines

Due to existence of various laws and views about mines, explaining their bases and giving elaboration on them seems to be necessary. The main theme of this writing is the ways the right belongs to every mine placed in the private farms and lands. During the process of passing the law, legislators opted for three perspectives in this regard: being as anfal (spoils) (Constitution, art. 45), being private (Civil Code, art. 161), and different rules in different cases in 1998 Mines Law art. 22, note 2, in which construction, decorative and façade stones which are located underground in a private land are conventionally excluded and added to that land. Other instances are not judged there. Since the legislator uses Imami Shia jurists’ views as a source in adopting rules and regulations about mines, I tried to refer to reasons, proofs and objections of each perspective in order to reach and extract a single opinion at the end. Finally, it is concluded that we should differentiate small and apparent (on-the-ground) mines from large underground ones; while the former is under ownership and subject to the land, the latter is considered as anfal or public property, because conventionally they are not from the land belongings.