The Mining Law of 1872: Past, Politics, and Prospects

1: An Act to Promote the Development of the Mining Resources of the United States

8 chapter 1 an act to Promote the development of the Mining resources of the United states and there was i, another specimen of nature’s bumbling excell, trying to make a case that i could rest, fumbling through the last century’s language: the mind loves its old home; then trying something newer; the pattern which connects; and settling on some half-remembered lines, spores of a thought i couldn’t grow without consulting again the spirit reader who wrote them; It’s as if we were told at the outset—every grain Of dust, each waterdrop, to be suffused With mind, with our minds. This will be paradise. —alison Hawthorne deming, #15 in The Monarchs: A Poem Sequence (1997) TheMiningLaw of1872 entitled“anact topromotethedevelopment of the Mining resources of the United states” was the codification of the american experience in mining in the american West.1 This much-discussed statute is seldom narrated for its contents. We need to start by knowing exactly what Congress put on the books. An Act to Promote Development of U.S. Mining Resources / 9 Congress declared that all valuable mineral deposits on the public domain were “free and open to exploration and purchase.” Citizens and persons who had declared their intention to become a citizen of the United states could occupy and purchase these lands. such exploration, occupancy, and use of these lands were subject to the “regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or rules of miners, in the several mining-districts.” These mining district rules prevailed “so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United states.” This first section made the public domain open to all for the exploitation of our national mineral wealth. Congress did not lease mineral lands as it had for lead mining. it spent land as it had in the several statutes , including the Homestead act, to put americans in possession and eventually ownership of valuable property. in 1872 that made sense in terms of public policy, but by the 1950s american public policy started focusing on environmental degradation. exploration and mining had caused massive environmental problems. Miners violated american indian sacred places. occupancy for purposes other than mining and the patenting of those claims putting the property into private hands for golf courses, hotels, housing, and casinos indicated that the original purpose of the statute had been thwarted. several chapters to follow will discuss this process and the reaction of policy makers. The second section of the act dealt with hard-rock or lode claims. Congress provided that such claims were “governed as to length along the vein or lode by the customs, regulations, and laws in force at the date of their location.” This covered the California gold rush claims and subsequent mining strikes up to May 10, 1872. Thereafter, Congress provided that lode claims were to be no more than fifteen hundred feet in length along the vein or lode. Further, no location of a claim could be made “until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located.” regarding the other dimension of the claim, Congress limited it to “three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights exist at the passage of this act shall render such limitations necessary.” Finally, lawmakers declared, “the end-lines of each claim shall be parallel to each other.” 10 / Chapter 1 This section cleared up some confusion on the mining frontier, and chapter 5 addresses the process. section 3 provided locators with exclusive use and enjoyment of their claim plus extralateral rights. Locators without adverse claims had “exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface” within the location. That included all “veins, lodes, and ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies inside of such surfaceline extended downward.” rights to veins extending outside the claim boundaries depended on their position “between vertical planes drawn downward . . . through the end-lines . . . so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of said veins or ledges.” Congress specifically provided that such extralateral rights did not allow a locator “to enter upon the surface of a claim owned or possessed by another.” This provision was part of nevada’s Comstock Lode heritage and the Mining Law of 1866. The issue of...