O.C.G.A. § 12-4-103: Penalty.

Any person who is not engaged in the prosecution of lawfully authorized searches and who digs, mines, removes, or cleanses phosphate rock or phosphatic deposits from the beds of the navigable streams of this state or from any public lands on the banks and margins thereof without having first obtained a license as required by Code Section 12-4-100 shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.