SEC. 306. If a mining claim is abandoned or relinquished, or the holder of a mining claim fails to meet the requirements of this title, the holder of the claim may not within three years thereafter personally, through an agent or otherwise, locate or hold a geological mining claim or mining claim embracing any of the area covered by the prior claim. SEC. 307. The provisions of this title shall not apply to any claimant who is entitled to the benefits of, and who has complied with the provisions of, sections 501 and 505 of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940 (54 Stat. 1178), as amended, during the periods for which he is protected by those sections. The provisions of this title shall become operative as to such claimant, however, upon the termination of such periods, subject to the following limitations: (a) The period of time within which a mining claim must be recorded under this title shall commence to run upon the termination of the period during which the claimant was protected under section 501 of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940. (b) The provisions of this title with respect to the filing of a statement as to performance of assessment work shall become applicable with respect to the assessment year commencing after the termination of the period during which the claimant was protected under section 505 of the Soldiers' and Sailors' Civil Relief Act of 1940. TITLE IV MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS SEC. 401. (a) Where the United States has disposed of any nonmineral interest or allowed any such interest in land, with a reservation of minerals to the United States, and such lands are open to location under the United States Mining Laws, any person qualified to locate the mineral deposits in such lands may enter upon the lands for the purpose of prospecting for the minerals upon the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of a bond to the United States for the benefit of the holder of the nonmineral interest. The prospector shall file such bond with the Secretary as security for all damages to the surface of the lands, and to the crops and improvements on the lands by reason of the prospecting. The measure of any damages may be fixed by agreement of the parties or by a court of competent jurisdiction. (b) Any person who has acquired from the United States the Mineral deposits in such land, or the right to mine and remove the deposits, may reenter and occupy so much of the surface of the land as may be required for all purposes reasonably incident to the mining or removal of the minerals, first, upon securing the written consent or waiver of the entryman, patentee, or holder; second, upon the payment of the damages to the surface of the land, to the crops or other tangible improvements to the owner thereof, where agreement may be had as to the amount thereof; third, upon restoration of the surface of the land, the crops, or the tangible improvements so as to eliminate the injury, or, fourth, in lieu of any of the foregoing provisions, the approval by the Secretary of a bond, to the United States for the benefit of the nonmineral interest as a security for all damages to the surface of the lands, and to the crops and improvements on the lands by reason of the mining operations. The measure of any damages may be fixed by agreement of the parties or by a court of competent jurisdiction. (c) All of section 9 of the Act of December 29, 1916 (39 Stat. 864, 43 U. S. C. sec. 299), except the first two sentences, is hereby repealed. SEC. 402. (a) The notices, statements, and bond required by this Act need be filed only in the Bureau of Land Management district land office for the district in which the claim is located, or in the office of the Regional Administrator of the region in which the land is located, if there is no district land office. (b) No State or local law or rule may require, as a condition to the validity of a mining claim, the filing of a claim or the filing of any statement required under this Act in any office of the State or subdivision thereof; nor may they modify the requirements of this Act with respect to the location, discovery, annual assessment work, prospecting, or exploration of any mining claim or with respect to the filing of reports concerning a geological or other mining claim. SEC. 403. If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, the remainder of the Act and the application of such provision to other persons or circumstances shall not be affected thereby. COMPILATION OF EXISTING MINING LAWS TAKEN FROM UNITED STATES STATUTES Mineral lands reserved. 4 July, 1866, c. 166, s. 5, v. 14, p. 86. Mineral lands 10 May 1872, U. S. vs. Gear, veins or lodes. Proof of 10 May 1872, Locators' 2343. Additional land districts and 2344. Provisions of this chapter not 2345. Mineral lands in certain 2346. Grants of lands to States or 2347. Entry of coal-lands. SEC. 2318. In all cases lands valuable for minerals shall be reserved from sale, except as otherwise expressly directed by law. SEC. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become such, under regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or rules of miners in the several mining districts, so far as the same are applicable and not inconsistent with the laws of the United States. SEC. 2320. Mining claims upon veins or lodes of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits, heretofore located, shall be governed as to length along the vein or lode by the customs, regulations, and laws in force at the date of their location. A mining-claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, whether located by one or more persons, may equal, but shall not exceed one thousand five hundred feet in length along the vein or lode; but no location of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located. No claim shall extend more than three hundred feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface, nor shall any claim be limited by any mining regulation to less than twenty-five feet on each side of of the middle of the vein at the surface, except where adverse rights existing on the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two render such limitation necessary. The end-lines of each claim shall be parallel to each other. SEC. 2321. Proof of citizenship, under this chapter, may consist, in the case of an individual, of his own affidavit therof; in the case of an association of persons unincorporated, of the affidavit of their authorized agent, made on his own knowledge, or upon information and belief; and in the case of a corporation organized under the laws of the United States, or of any State or Territory thereof, by the filing of a certified copy of their charter or certificate of incorporation. SEC. 2322. The locators of all mining locations heretofore made or which shall hereafter be made, on any mineral vein, lode, or ledge, situated on the public domain, their heirs and assigns, where no adverse claim exists on the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, so long as they comply with the laws of the United States, and with State, territorial, and local regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States governing their possessory title, shall have the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface included within the lines of their locations, and of all veins, lodes, and ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of which lies inside of such surfacelines extended downward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges may so far depart from a perpendicular in their course downward as to extend outside the vertical side-lines of such surface locations. But their right of possession to such outside parts of such veins or ledges shall be confined to such portions thereof as lie between vertical planes drawn downward as above described, through the end-lines of their locations, so continued in their own direction that such planes will intersect such exterior parts of such veins or ledges. And nothing in this section shall authorize the locator or possessor of a vein or lode which extends in its downward course beyond the vertical lines of his claim to enter upon the surface of a claim owned or possessed by another. SEC. 2323. Where a tunnel is run for the development of a vein or lode, or for the discovery of mines, the owners of such tunnel shall have the right of possession of all veins or lodes within three thousand feet from the face of such tunnel on the line thereof, not previously known to exist, discovered in such tunnel, to the same extent as if discovered from the surface; and locations on the line of such tunnel of veins or lodes not appearing on the surface, made by other parties after the commencement of the tunnel, and while the same is being prosecuted with reasonable diligence, shall be invalid; but failure to prosecute the work on the tunnel for six months shall be considered as an abandonment of the right to all undiscovered veins on the line of such tunnel. SEC. 2324. The miners of each mining district may make regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or with the laws of the State or Territory in which the district is situated, governing the location, manner of recording, amount of work necessary to hold possession of a mining claim, subject to the following requirements: The location must be distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries can be readily traced. All records of mining claims hereafter made shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date of the location, and such a description of the claim or claims located by reference to some natural object or permanent monument as will identify the claim. On each claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, and until a patent has been issued therefor, not less than one hundred dollars' worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during each year. On all claims located prior to the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, ten dollars' worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made by the tenth day of June, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, and each year thereafter, for each one hundred feet in length along the vein until a patent has been issued therefor; but where such claims are held in common, such expenditure may be made upon any one claim; and upon a failure to comply with these conditions, the claim or mine upon which such failure occurred shall be open to relocation in the same manner as if no location of the same had ever been made, provided that the original locators, their heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, have not resumed work upon the claim after failure and before such location. Upon the failure of any one of several co-owners to contribute his proportion of the expenditures required hereby, the co-owners who have performed the labor or made the improvements may, at the expiration of the year, give such delinquent co-owner personal notice in writing or notice by publication in the newspaper published nearest the claim, for at least once a week for ninety days, and if at the expiration of ninety days after such notice in writing or by publication such delinquent should fail or refuse to contribute his proportion of the expenditure required by this section, his interest in the claim shall become the property of his co-owners who have made the required expenditures. Owners of tun- Regulations made by miners. 10 May 1872, Patents for how obtained. 10 May 1872, c. 152, s. 6, v. 7, p. 92. SEC. 2325. A patent for any land claimed and located for valuable deposits may be obtained in the following manner: Any mineral lands, person, association, or corporation authorized to locate a claim under this chapter, having claimed and located a piece of land for such purposes, who has, or have, complied with the terms of this chapter, may file in the proper land office an application for a patent, under oath, showing such compliance, together with a plat and field notes of the claim or claims in common, made by or under the direction of the United States surveyor general, showing accurately the boundaries of the claim or claims, Adverse claim, which shall be distinctly marked by monuments on the ground, and shall post a copy of such plat, together with a notice of such application for a patent, in a conspicuous place on the land embraced in such plat previous to the filing of the application for a patent, and shall file an affidavit of at least two persons that such notice has been duly posted, and shall file a copy of the notice in such land office, and shall thereupon be entitled to a patent for the land, in the manner following: The register of the land office, upon the filing of such application, plat, field notes, notices, and affidavits, shall publish a notice that such application has been made, for the period of sixty days, in a newspaper to be by him designated as published nearest to such claim; and he shall also post such notice in his office for the same period. The claimant at the time of filing this application, or at any time thereafter, within the sixty days of publication, shall file with the register a certificate of the United States surveyor general that five hundred dollars' worth of labor has been expended or improvements made upon the claim by himself or grantors; that the plat is correct, with such further description by such reference to natural objects or permanent monuments as shall identify the claim, and furnish an accurate description, to be incorporated in the patent. At the expiration of the sixty days of publication the claimant shall file his affidavit, showing that the plat and notice have been posted in a conspicuous place on the claim during such period of publication. If no adverse claim shall have been filed with the register and the receiver of the proper land office at the expiration of the sixty days of publication, it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a patent, upon the payment to the proper officer of five dollars per acre, and that no adverse claim cxists; and thereafter no objection from third parties to the issuance of a patent shall be heard, except it be shown that the applicant has failed to comply with the terms of this chapter. SEC. 2326. Where an adverse claim is filed during the period of publication, it shall be upon oath of the person or persons making the same, and shall show the nature, boundaries, and extent of such adverse claim, and all procedings, except the publication of notice and making and filing of the affidavit thereof, shall be stayed until the controversy shall have been settled or decided by a court of competent jurisdiction, or the adverse claim waived. It shall be the duty of the adverse claimant, within thirty days after filing his claim, to commence proceedings in a court of competent jurisdiction, to determine the question of the right of possession, and prosecute the same with reasonable diligence to final judgment; and a failure so to do shall be a waiver of his adverse claim. After such judgment shall have been rendered, the party entitled to the possession of the claim, or any portion thereof, may, without giving further notice, file a certified copy of the judgmentroll with the register of the land-office, together with the certificate of the surveyor-general that the requisite amount of labor has been expended or improvements made thereon, and the description required in other cases, and shall pay to the receiver five dollars per acre for his claim, together with the proper fees, whereupon the whole proceedings and the judgment-roll shall be certified by the register to the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, and a patent shall issue thereon for the claim, or such portion thereof as the applicant shall appear, from the decision of the court, to rightly possess. If it appears from the decision of the court that several parties are entitled to separate and different portions of the claim, each party may pay for his portion of the claim, with the proper fees, and file the certificate and description by the surveyor-general, whereupon the register shall certify the proceedings and judgment-roll to the Commissioner of the General Land-Office, as in the preceding case, and patents shall issue to the several parties according to their respective rights. Nothing herein contained shall be construed to prevent the alienation of the title conveyed by a patent for a mining-claim to any person whatever. SEC. 2327. The description of vein or lode claims, upon surveyed lands, shall designate the location of the claim with reference to the lines of the public surveys, but need not conform therewith; but where a patent shall be issued for claims upon unsurveyed lands, the surveyor-general, in extending the surveys, shall adjust the same to the boundaries of such patented claim, according to the plat or description thereof, but so as in no case to interfere with or change the location of any such patented claim. SEC. 2329. Claims usually called "placers," including all forms of deposit, excepting veins of quartz, or other rock in place, shall be subject to entry and patent, under like circumstances and conditions, and upon similar proceedings, as are provided for vein or lode claims; but where the lands have been previously surveyed by the United States, the entry in its exterior limits shall conform to the legal subdivisions of the public lands. SEC. 2330. Legal subvisions of forty acres may be subdivided into ten-acre tracts; and two or more persons, or associations of persons, having contiguous claims of any size, although such claims may be less than ten acres each, may make joint entry thereof; but no location of a placer-claim, made after the ninth day of July, eighteen hundred and seventy, shall exceed one hundred and sixty acres for any one person or association or persons, which location shall conform to the United States surveys; and nothing in this section contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide preemptions or homestead claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize the sale of the improvements of any bona-fide settler to any purchaser. SEC. 2331. Where placer claims are upon surveyed lands, and conform to legal subdivisions, no further survey or plat shall be required, and all placer-mining claims located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, shall conform as near as practicable with the United States system of public-land surveys, and the rectangular subdivisions of such surveys, and no such location shall include more than twenty acres for each individual claimant; but where placer-claims cannot be conformed to legal subdivisions, survey and plat shall be made as on unsurveyed lands; and where by the segregation of mineral land in any legal subdivision a quantity of agricultural land less than forty acres remains, such fractional portion of agricultural land may be entered by any party qualified by law, for homestead or preemption purposes. SEC. 2332. Where such person or association, they and their grantors, have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining-claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto under this chapter, in the absence of any adverse claim; but nothing in this chapter shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent. SEC. 2333. Where the same person, association, or corporation is in possession of a placer-claim, and also a vein or lode included within the boundaries thereof, application shall be made for a patent for the placer-claim, with the statement that it includes such vein or lode, and in such case a patent shall issue for the placer-claim, subject to the provisions of this chapter, including such vein or lode, upon the payment of five dollars per acre for such vein or lode claim, and twenty-five feet of surface on each side thereof. The remainder of the placer-claim, or any placerclaim not embracing any vein or lode claim, shall be paid for at the rate of two dollars and fifty cents per acre, together with all costs of proceedings; and where a vein or lode, such as is described in section twent-three hundred and twenty, is known to exist within the boundaries of a placer-claim, an application for a patent for such placer-claim which does not include an application the vein or lode claim shall be construed as a conclusive Description of c. 152, s. 8, limit of. 9 July 1870, c. 235, s. 12, v. 16, p. 217. Subdivisions of 9 July 1870, Conformity of What evidence Proceedings |