(1)Where separate applications are made by two or more persons for the right to work the same minerals and are referred to the court, the court, in addition to the matters aforesaid, shall determine which, if any, of the applicants is to be preferred, or whether the right to work one part of the minerals should be granted to one applicant and the right to work another part should be granted to another applicant; and in arriving at its determination the court shall have regard to the question as to how the minerals can be most conveniently worked, to the respective rights of the applicants in the surface or adjacent minerals, and generally to all the circumstances of the case.
(2)This section shall apply to cases of applications by two or more persons for the same ancillary right subject to the necessary modifications, and so that the right may be granted to the applicants, or to any two or more of them, jointly.