Mining settlement

“ We are not aware of any public policy of the government which sustains this proposition.
Where there is a valid location of a mining claim, the area becomes segregated from the public domain and the property of the locator. There is no inhibition in the mineral lands act against alienation, and he may sell it, mortgage it, or part with the whole or any portion of it, as he may see fit. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The court said that the declaration that no title could be acquired, under the provisions relating to such town sites, and the sale of lands therein, to any mine of gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper, or to any valid mining claim or possession held under existing laws, would seem, on first impression, to constitute a reservation of such mines in the land sold, and of mining claims on them, to the United States. ”

“ Wooden booths flung signs to the streets bigger than the booths themselves: "Mineral Companies Promoted," "Mining and Smelting," "Mines, Options, Leases,"—there was no end to the variations of the eternal theme of mining. Town lots, switches of flats, and hill ridges were being swapped and sold and leased from the curb-stone; leases were being made from buggies and options were being granted from a horse's back. ”

“ These deposits are naturally the first to fail in productiveness, but the neighboring hills are formed of a gold-bearing quartz which is being crushed, night and day, by hundreds of powerful machines; and the works still pay ten thousand miners fair day-wages, besides giving the organized companies who employ them satisfactory dividends. Thus mining has been largely robbed of its adventurous character in this neighborhood, and perhaps also of most of its alluring charm, having become a sort of regular industry, like coal-mining, or even brick-making. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 in most cases it has been found better policy for the state to divest itself of all interest in mining property, and to extend all possible encouragement to those who undertake the development of the mineral wealth of the nation. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To make these mines produce the greatest possible quantity of lead of which they are capable, with the least possible expense, is a consideration of the first political consequence, to which end it is desirable that the reserved mines be disposed of, to individuals, or that the term for which leases are granted be extended from three to fifteen years, which will induce capitalists, who are now deterred by the illiberality of governmental terms, to embark in mining. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The wages are not high, and only those in straitened circumstances, the dissolute, and profligate, who have no homes of their own, are inclined to let themselves to labor in gold mines.
Many works are extensive, and employ a thousand or more laborers each. The government grants mining privileges to individuals on certain conditions. ”

“ The contract was a 'lease,' the receipts were 'royalties,' and royalties, being rentals, are inherently income and have been commonly so considered. All these things seem to have affected the conclusion of the court, but, after all the dominating thought appears to be that, when land is devoted to mining it is put to only one of those productive uses of which it is capable, and that the product of the use should be called income. The land itself is the chief thing. After the mining is finished the land remains suitable for other uses ”

“ Indeed, the discovery of a rich mine in any quarter is usually followed by a large settlement in its immediate neighborhod, and the consequent organization of some form of local government for the protection of its members.' It would seem, therefore, that the entry of a town-site, even though within its limits mineral lands are found, would be as important to the occupants of other lands as if no mineral lands existed. ”

“ When a discovery of lead has been made, the miners from the neighboring country have flocked to it, and commenced digging as usual, no one troubling himself about a lease; and thus the provisions of the act have been in a great measure disregarded. Men of respectability, and of sufficient capital to carry on mining in a systematic manner, have, it is believed, been frequently deterred from making applications for leases, from the short period for which only they can be granted. ”

“ 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. ”

“ We are satisfied that the mining industry, as a whole, in the Hauraki mining district, is in a very critical condition, and that the Court is not justified, unless very cogent reasons are established, in adding to the present expense necessary for the further development of the industry. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The system was carried to an enormous extent before the Revolution, and by it, almost all classes of the community were interested in the success of the mines, while a vast floating capital was employed in them, besides that which was, in some measure, withdrawn from circulation, and sunk in dead works. It gave an impulse to Mining operations altogether unprecedented in the history of the world ”

“ We deal here with a unique form of property. A mining claim on public lands is a possessory interest in land that is 'mineral in character' and as respects which discovery 'within the limits of the claim' has been made. ”

“ By the regulations issued on March 31, 1882, it is enacted that any parcel of new or unworked land, taken possession of with a view of obtaining a lease, shall be efficiently and continuously worked from the date of possession by not less than two men to four acres or less, and an additional man to every other two acres, under pain of forfeiture of the title to the land. The holder of a miner’s right may apply for authority to search for gold, and the holder of a mineral licence may apply for authority to search for minerals on land aforesaid. ”

“ The mines of England have no assistance from the government, but must rely for their success upon their own resources, and the spirit and energy of their owners; and it is probably to this cause that we may attribute the activity and economy which, when their constitutions are duly examined, may be found to prevail in the principal mining districts. ”

“ Such companies, with superior mechanical facilities to do much labor, in a short space, will be enabled to go over the whole mineral field, although already dug over by individuals, and reap yet a rich reward of their efforts. And when there will be no more gold washing to be done, then a new era in the mining of the country will commence—we mean a regular system of mining by sinking shafts into the very bowels of the rocks will be entered upon. ”

“ This idea yet exists in the minds of many, or at least of that portion who are engaged in hydraulic mining, for in their opinion the business of mining, being the first and original industry of the country, must have precedence over all other kinds of business, and of course this priority gives them the right to fill up, cover up, and destroy the property of the farmers below who were foolish enough to get in the way. ”

“ There are in some localities supposed rich gold banks and beds, which only require water for development, but to get which would require an outlay for ditches of many hundred thousand dollars. It is probable that it would be richly paying investment, however, and the principal reason why it is not undertaken is the lack of certain laws, regulating mining claims, and the conflicts and doubts that are occasioned by the neglect of the government to establish the terms of ownership in mining lands. ”

“ The peculiar character of mining property is sufficiently obvious. Prior to development it may present to the naked eye a mere tract of land with barren surface, and of no practical value except for what may be found beneath. ”

“ Until about thirty or forty years ago, mining was the most prominent interest in the state, but wars and political disturbances caused the abandonment of the mines, and the works fell into decay, after which there was neither enterprise, capital, nor skill to restore them. ”

“ In brief, the proposition was for eight men to file on twenty acres of land each under the United States placer mining laws, pooling their issues in a single claim of 160 acres, and continuing in this manner until they had secured all the land they required for their purposes. By this method they could apparently locate the entire universe, or at least that portion of it within the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam, as the statutes governing mineral entries seemingly place no limit upon the number of claims eight persons could thus locate. ”

“ While it is true that considerable foreign capital, mostly American, during the past seventy-five years and particularly during the Diaz régime when law and order reigned, was invested in mining, history shows that the enterprises carried on by foreigners really resulted in taking very little from the mineral resources of the country that was available and valuable to its inhabitants. ”