Mining law

“ Endless litigation, arising from the defects of the first mining laws, and the inexperience of the surveying engineers, contributed to ruin the small capitalists who had attempted to work the mines. Foreign capital is now the chief requirement. The existing mining law, greatly improved since 1868, is the simplest in Europe; the expense of a concession is almost nominal, and the royalties on ore are extremely moderate. ”

“ It is the policy of the country to encourage the development of its mineral resources. The act of July 26, 1866, declared that all mineral deposits on lands belonging to the United States were free and open to exploration, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase by citizens of the United States and those who had declared their intention to become such, subject to regulations prescribed by law, and to the rules and customs of miners in their several mining districts, so far as the same were applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States. ”

“ Nothing but such equality would have been tolerated by the miners, who were emphatically the law-makers, as respects mining, upon the public lands in the State. The first appropriator was everywhere held to have, within certain well-defined limits, a better right than others to the claims taken up; and in all controversies, except as against the government, he was regarded as the original owner, from whom title was to be traced. But the mines could not be worked without water. Without water the gold would remain for ever buried in the earth or rock. ”

“ With the decadence of placer mining in California, the accustomed idea of private property finally prevailed in385 the passage of a law permitting the patenting of mineral lands. The only effect is to lock up opportunities—to give the owner of mining ground the power of saying that no one else may use what he does not choose to use himself. And there are many cases in which mining ground is thus withheld from use for speculative purposes, just as valuable building lots and agricultural land are withheld from use. ”

“ No time need be spent in restating the general common-law rule that the ownership in fee of the surface of the earth carries with it the right to the minerals beneath, and the consequent privilege of mining to extract them. ”

“ But in a general way it's the high point of an ore-body—the highest place where it shows above ground. But the law works out like this: every time a man finds a mine and opens it up till it pays these apex sharps locate the high ground above him and contest the title to his claim. You can't do that in Mexico, nor in Canada, nor in China—this is the only country in the world where a mining claim don't go straight down. But under the law, when you locate a lode, you can follow that vein, within an extension of your end-lines, under anybody's ground. ”

“ Property in mines not discovered, and registered according to law, whether the mine was on public or private lands, was vested, as has already appeared, exclusively in the Supreme Government, so that private persons could not acquire it or any interest in it in any other mode than that prescribed in the provisions of the mining ordinance. Reference therefore must be made to those provisions to ascertain what they are and what the discoverer is required to do in order to acquire such a property. ”

“ The business of smelting is a part of the operation of mining, although it may be a distinct branch from that of digging the ore; but the law ought not to be so construed as to require the whole operation to be embraced in the same contract. They are different operations, requiring different qualifications, and distinct regulations. This contract is for the possession of land. The work is to be performed at the United States' lead mines, and must of course be performed within the limits prescribed by law to be attached to such mines. ”

“ Thus read, the court held that they merely prohibited the passage of title, under the provisions of the town-site laws, to mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper which were known to exist on the issue of the town-site patent, and to mining claims and mining possessions, in respect to which such proceedings had been taken, under the law or the custom of miners, as to render them valid, creating a property right in the holder, and not to prohibit the acquisition for all time of mines which then lay buried, unknown, in the depths of the earth. ”

“ Meagher, 104 U.S. 279, 283: 'A mining claim perfected under the law is 'property' in the highest sense of that term, which may be bought, sold, and conveyed, and will pass by descent.' It is not, therefore, subject to the disposal of the government. ”

“ But, while Congress delayed and hesitated to act, the swarm of enterprising and industrious citizens filled the country, and, before a State could be organized, had become its dominating element, with wealth and numbers and claims which demanded consideration.
Matters remained in this condition, with slight exception, until July 26, 1866, when Congress passed a law by which title to mineral land might be acquired from the government at nominal prices, and by which the idea of a royalty on the product of the mines was for ever relinquished. ”

“ The following are some of the wicked and sinful methods by which they say men obtain riches from mining. When a prospect of obtaining metals shows itself in a mine, either the ruler or magistrate drives out the rightful owners of the mines from possession, or a shrewd and cunning neighbour perhaps brings a law-suit against the old possessors in order to rob them of some part of their property. Or the mine superintendent imposes on the owners such a heavy contribution on shares, that if they cannot pay, or will not, they lose their rights of possession ”

“ Actual residence and cultivation are made indispensable conditions; and, to guard the privilege from abuses of speculation or monopoly, the law is rigid as to the mode of establishing claims by adequate testimony, with penalties for perjury. Mining, trading, or any pursuit other than culture of the soil is interdicted, mineral lands being expressly excluded from preemption privileges, excepting those containing coal, which, in quantities not exceeding 160 acres, are restricted to individuals in actual possession and commerce, with an enhanced minimum of $20 per acre. ”

“ Within 6 months since the date of invalidation of the mining license, the licensed organization or individual shall remove all remaining assets of its/her/her own and related parties from the mining area. Past this time limit, any remaining assets will belong to the State. 4. Within the time limit specified in Article 3 of this Article, organizations or individuals licensed for mining shall fulfill the obligations related to the mine closure, environmental rehabilitation and restoration and soil rehabilitation under this Law and other relevant laws. ”

“ The law on mines of 1893 has somewhat modified some of the restrictions and extended the rights of mining. But the men are stolidly opposed to improvement; they retain the prejudices of their fathers. ”

“ Of course, where mining companies, organized solely to obtain vast areas of timber land, under cover of the mining laws, especially the Timber and Stone Act, and the Placer Mining laws, found their work exposed by the activity and watchfulness of the forest officers, they naturally raised a cry against the Service that woke the echoes.
The Placer laws allow a company to obtain title to twenty acres of land simply by showing five hundred dollars' worth of mining work done upon it. No signs of mineral need be shown, no further attempt to develop it is required. ”

“ Under the mining laws Congress has made public lands available to people for the purpose of mining valuable mineral deposits and not for other purposes. [4] The obvious intent was to reward and encourage the discovery of minerals that are valuable in an economic sense. Minerals which no prudent man will extract because there is no demand for them at a price higher than the costs of extraction and transportation are hardly economically valuable. ”

“ Mining organizations and individuals shall: a/ Partially cover investment costs for upgrading, maintaining and building technical infrastructure facilities used in mining activities and building welfare works under law for localities in which minerals are exploited; b/ Combine mining activities with the building of technical infrastructure and environmental protection and restoration under investment projects on mineral mining ”

“ We must study an amendment to the mining laws which will prevent over­lapping claims and which shall end all conflicts which have hindered the development of rich mining claims by authorizing the prior locator to administer and operate the mining claim, subject to the filing of a bond or the deposit of certain portions of the income with the Bureau of Mines or the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. ”

“ If, therefore, the payment for the land, and satisfaction for damages, are conditions precedent to the vesting of any title to the mine, the land owner might, by refusing to appoint an expert, indefinitely postpone its acquisition-thus defeating the policy of the Mining Laws, as well as the right of the discoverer, which those laws so fully recognized, and so amply protected. ”

“ The holder of a miner’s right is entitled to enter upon any Crown land for the purpose of prospecting and searching for gold, and to take and maintain possession of a parcel or parcels of land and work the same, subject to the regulations and provisions of the Act; he is also authorised to cut timber for removal or for the erection of a place of residence or of business, and with the Warden’s consent, to make tramways or roads for mining purposes. Claims are of four kinds—alluvial deposits and river or creek beds; quartz lodes, reefs, and leaders ”

“ Some of the ore from both kinds of mines-between 10 and 20 per cent.-is concentrated by washing or beneficiated after coming out of the mine and before starting out of the state, but our conclusion respecting the usual operations renders this deflection immaterial.
Plainly the facts do not support the contention. Mining is not interstate commerce, but like manufacturing, is a local business, subject to local regulation and taxation. ”

“ It is to the public interest that deposits of mineral should not be permitted to remain idle and undeveloped. This has been recognized from the earliest times, and laws have been framed in all countries for the encouragement of mining enterprise. In many cases the state or the ruler has sought to obtain a share in the profits of mining, or even to work mines for the individual profit of the ruler or of the state. ”

“ All that the Government sought was the cessation of the consumption of mining equipment and manpower in the gold mines and the conservation of such equipment and manpower for more essential was uses. The Government had no need for the gold or the gold mines. The mere fact that L-208 was in the form of an express prohibition of the operation of the mines, rather than a prohibition of the use of the scarce equipment in the mines, did not convert the order into a 'taking' of a right to operate the mines. ”

“ The State has the absolute, exclusive, inalienable, and imprescriptible ownership of all mines including metal-rich sands, salt mines, coal and hydrocarbon deposits and other fossil substances with the exception of surface clays, notwithstanding the ownership of natural or legal persons over the lands under whose surface they are situated. The surface lands shall be subject to the obligations and limitations specified by law in order to facilitate the exploration, exploitation and benefits of these mines. ”

“ A prudent miner acting wisely in taking up a claim, whether for a placer mine, or for a lode or vein, would not overlook such circumstances, and they may in fact control his action in making the location. If the land contains gold or other valuable deposits in loose earth, sand, or gravel, which can be secured with profit, that fact will satisfy the demand of the government as to the character of the land as placer ground, whatever the incidental advantages it may offer to the applicant for a patent. ”

“ Intending settlers or companies can obtain, upon favourable terms, land for pastoral or agricultural purposes, mineral leases, and concessions giving them the right to cut timber upon the State forests. A miner can acquire, on the annual payment of ten shillings, a miner's right, entitling him to take possession of, mine, and occupy, unoccupied Crown Lands for gold mining in accordance with the Mining Regulations. ”

“ One is that contractors who strip off the overburden of soil, gravel, etc., in open pit mines, other contractors who load the ore in such mines into cars, and still others, usually four in a group, who take ore out of underground mines, are not included. But none of these are engaged in mining on their own account. Instead, they are working for those who are so engaged. However important their service, they are not principals in the business, but employees ”

“ Both treat the question as affecting the solution of other contentions. There has been no ruling on the point by the Supreme Court of the state. We think the tax in its essence is what the act calls it-an occupation tax. It is not laid on the land containing the ore, nor on the ore after removal, but on the business of mining the ore, which consists in severing it from its natural bed and bringing it to the surface where it can become an article of commerce and be utilized in the industrial arts. Mining is a well-recognized business, wherein capital and labor are extensively employed. ”