an individual can exceed 20 acres, and no location made by an association can exceed 20 acres for each person. In order to locate 160 acres, eight bona-fide locators are required. No local laws or mining regulations can restrict a placer location to less than 20 acres, although the locator is not compelled to take so much. Mill sites must be located on non-mineral lands not contiguous to the vein or lode, and not exceed five acres, and may be included in the patent for a mine at $5 per acre. (See sec. 2337 R. S.) Tunnel rights, in tunnels run for the development of a vein or lode or for the discovery of mines, are provided. Proprietors of a mining tunnel, run in good faith, are entitled to the possessory right of all blind lodes cut, discovered, or intersected by such tunnel, which were not previously known to exist, within 3,000 feet of the face or point of commencement of such tunnel, to the same extent as if such lodes had been discovered on the surface, and other parties are prohibited, after the commencement of the tunnel, from prospecting for and making location on the line thereof and within said distance of 3,000 feet, unless such lodes appear upon the surface or were previously known to exist. (See sec. 2323 R. S.) For requirements necessary to obtain the benefit of this law, see pages 16-17, "Regulations General Land Office, April 1, 1879." IRON HELD TO BE A VALUABLE MINERAL. Iron has been held, along with many other minerals when on the public domain, to come within section 2325 of the Revised Statutes, under the denomination of valuable deposits, and can be paid for at the rate of $2.50 or $5 per acre, depending upon whether the deposit is in placer or lode form. THE POLICY OF THE UNITED STATES IN RELATION TO MINERAL LANDS. The policy of the United States in relation to the sale and disposition of the mineral lands of the public domain-beginning with its reservation of portions of the metal therefrom, next occupancy rights, then leases, followed by public offering and private entry and sale, thereafter culminating in the several mineral acts of 1866, 1870, and 1872-now permits their free exploration and development by citizens, or persons who have declared their intention to become citizens; and a nominal price for the lands (placer $2.50, and quartz, gold, silver, cinnabar, or other valuable deposits $5 per acre) is charged should the owner of the possessory title desire to procure a fee-simple title. This price barely covers expenses of making title on the part of the United States. The material wealth added to the circulating medium by extraction from the earth through individuals or corporations, together with costs of mining and extraction, and the great and dangerous risks to fortune caused thereby, are considered equivalents for the value of the land. The United States protects exploration and developments by the miner on the public domain. As an evidence of the liberality of the Nation in this respect, coal lands are sold at from $10 to $20 per acre. Twenty acres of coal land at $20 per acre cost the purchaser $400, while 20 acres of lode mineral land on the Comstock lode at $5 per acre are sold for $100, and, as in the case of the Consolidated Virginia and California mines, may yield more than $60,000,000. NUMBER OF LOCATIONS AND OF PATENTS. In the twelve States and Territories containing the precious metals and forming part of the public domain there are known to have been made more than 200,000 mining locations, yet the total number to June 30, 1880, of lode, vein, or other valuable deposit claims to which titles have been obtained by compliance with the mining laws is but 3,978, containing 38,435.11 acres at $5 per acre, and for which the United States has received $197,778. The total number of placer-mining claims patented in the same region by the United States is 1,203, containing 110,186.03 acres, at $2.50 per acre, and for which the United States has received $288,767. In all a total number of 5,261 lode, and placer claims have been patented to June 30, 1880, containing in all 148,621.14 acres, for which the Government received a total of $486,545. MINERAL LANDS OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. ESTIMATE OF AREA OF WESTERN PRECIOUS-METAL REGIONS. The estimated area of the entire precious-metal bearing region of the public domain is 65,000,000 acres, within which lie the veins, lodes, or deposits of precious and valuble minerals. Deducting the 148,621.14 acres already patented, and the grand total remaining, the property of the Nation exceeds 64,800,000 acres, all situated and lying in the States and Territories named in the tables hereto attached, and being south of the Dominion of Canada (British Possessions), west of the Missouri River, and north of the boundary line between Mexico and this country. All of this is independent of the unexplored area within the unorganized Territory of Alaska, which in the future may form no unimportant portion of our precious-metal-bearing country. The above estimate, however, includes a vast number of located claims held and worked under a possessory title alone, there being no statute compelling the claimants to purchase the fee from the Government. For many of these claims applications for patent have been made, but proceedings are suspended either on account of litigation in the courts, initiated in the manner and within the time prescribed by the statute, or by reason of failure of claimants to produce satisfactory evidence of compliance with law and right to purchase and make entry. The difficulties of obtaining patent under existing laws are so great, and the practice of levying blackmail is so extensive, that many mine owners prefer to rely upon their possessory title rather than purchase the fee from the Government. PATENTS ISSUED. Statement of the number of placer mining claims patented in the several precious metal-bearing States and Territories of the public domain from 1867 to June 30, 1880, together with the acreage and amount paid therefor, under the several mining acts of July 26, 1866, July 1872. 9, 1870, and May 10, 1,200 00 Statement of the number of placer mining claims patented, &c.—Continued. 1878. Acres. 10 3 400.00 40 1,970. 15 107 12, 439. 51 $29,874 00 ཅི་ ༧ཚབ 1,745 50 1,000 00 6, 371.49 $16, 030 00 386.59 160.00 400 00 1 1, 280.00 987 50 3,200 00 Statement of the number of quartz vein or lode, or other valuable deposit mining claims patented in the several precious metal bearing States and Territories of the public domain from 1867 to June 30, 1880, together with the acreage and amount paid therefor, under the several mining acts of July 26, 1866, July 9, 1870, and May 10, 1872. 786 88888 79, 620.00 59 3,561.08 5 1, 840. 00 3 263 56. 01 16, 677.50 320.00 152 27 10, 943. 26 1, 303 110, 186. 03 $199, 661 00 9,306 50 4,600 00 235 00 42,099 00 1,050 00 725 00 30,515 50 574 50 Acres. Amount. Washington Territory, although having no mining claims patented, contains valuable deposits of the precious metals. REFERENCES HEREUNDER. For lists of patents issued for mining claims from July 26, 1866, to August 1, 1877, see Copp's Hand Book of Mining Law; also, annual reports Commissioner General Land Office, from 1868 to 1879. United States Statutes at Large, vols. 1 to 18. Revised Statutes of the United States, chap. 6; title, "Mineral Lands and Mining Resources." Annual reports General Land Office, 1812-1880. Public Lands, Laws, Instructions, and Opinions, 2 vols., 1838. Mineral Resources of the United States, 1866-1867, 1868, United States Government. J. Ross Browne and James W. Taylor, Commissioners. Mineral Resources west of the Rocky Mountains, annual reports for 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876. Rossiter W. Raymond, United States Commissioner of Mining Statistics. Preliminary Report and Testimony, United States Public Land Commission, February, 1880. The Land of Gold, Hinton R. Helper. Sights in the Gold Mines, Wood, 1852. Messages of the Presidents of the United States from 1829 to 1874. Reports of the War Department of the United States to 1849, on lease of lead and mineral lands. Reports of the Secretary of the Interior, 1849 to 1880. Message of the President of the United States, January 24, 1850, transmitting information in answer to a resolution of the House of December 31, 1849, on the subject of California and New Mexico. Ex. Doc., House, No. 17, Thirty-first Congress, first session. Reports of Foster & Whitney, D. D. Owen, J. Evans. Lester's Land Laws, Regulations, and Decisions, 2 vols. Copp's Land Laws; Copp's Mining Decisions; Copp's Land Owner; Copp's Handbook of Mining Laws; Henry N. Copp, Washington, D. C. Zabriskie's Land Laws. Rockwell's Spanish and Mexican Laws. Morrison's Mining Digest; Morrison's Mining Rights. |