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FEDERAL PLACER MINING LAWS AND REGULATIONS By FRED W. JOHNSON INTRODUCTION In addition to a knowledge of placer minerals and their identification and occurrence and methods of sampling and prospecting, the prospector must have a knowledge of how to protect his rights in case he succeeds in making discovery. When a discovery has been made, the prospector can protect his rights thereto by locating a claim, or “staking” a claim, as it is sometimes called. Once a valid location is made, the locator has an absolute right to possession of the land in the claim and to mine and recover all min erals occurring thereon as long as he maintains his right to possession of the claim. The following infor mation regarding the location of placer-mining claims has been compiled for the purpose of advising pros pectors in this regard, and every reasonable care has been taken to make it accurate and reliable at the time it was written (October 1938). The reader is warned, however, that changes are made from time to time in the laws and regulations governing the location and patenting of mining claims. If specific advice is de sired as to any provision of the United States mining laws, inquiry should be directed to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Washington, D. C. PLACER MINERAL DEPOSITS The law defines “placers“ as including all forms of deposits excepting veins of quartz or other rock in place. Mineral deposits in the public lands, not in vein or lode formation, which have a commercial value and which can be mined at a profit, are subject to location under the placer-mining laws, except oil and gas, coal, phosphate, potash, oil shale, sodium, and, in Louisiana and New Mexico, sulphur, the min erals named being subject to lease only. LANDS SUBJECT TO LOCATION Before prospecting, a prospector should first ascer tain whether the land on which he expects to prospect is vacant Government land. If the land has been patented, it is no longer subject to mining location (unless patented under the stock-raising homestead law) and the prospector would not be able to pro tect his discovery by location. Vacant public lands, either surveyed or unsurveyed, in the states to which the mining laws are applicable, are open to prospect ing and, upon discovery of mineral, to location and patent, as are also lands in national forests in the public-land states (subject to compliance with forest regulations), lands entered or patented under the stock-raising homestead law, lands entered under other agricultural laws but not perfected, where prospecting can be done peaceably, and lands within railroad grants if patents have not been issued. Some Government-owned lands are embraced in withdraw als that do not permit mining locations to be made, and for this reason the status of the land should be ascertained before prospecting is begun. This status can be obtained by communicating with the register of the land office for the district in which the land is located, or the Commissioner of the General Land Office, Washington, D. C. In making inquiry of either of these officials, the land concerning which informa tion is desired should be described by section, town ship, and range of the public land surveys or, if not surveyed, should be described by metes and bounds and its position with reference either to the nearest corner of the public land surveys or to the nearest towns, rivers, railroads, streams, peaks, or other nat— ural or cultural features should be given, so that its location can be determined. If prospecting is to be done on privately owned lands, the prospector should determine whether or not title to the minerals passed with the patent for the land, and if so, the United States mining laws are not applicable and it will be necessary for the pros pector to obtain permission from the owner of the land to prospect thereon. The United States mining laws are applicable to the following states, and mining locations can be made only in these states: Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Mon tana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyo ming. The mining laws are also applicable to the Territory of Alaska. If the prospector learns that the land on which he expects to prospect is vacant public land, it is not necessary for him to obtain any license or permission to enter the land and prospect for minerals that are subject to location under the mining laws. Lands entered or patented under the stock-raising homestead law are subject to prospecting and to loca tion and patent, but the location and patent carry title to the minerals only, title to the land itself remaining in the homesteader. A prospector is liable for all damages done to crops or tangible improvements as a result of his prospecting on a stock-raising home stead entry. regardless of whether it is patented or not. The locator of a placer claim on a stock-raising homestead entry may occupy and use so much of the surface thereof as may be required for all purposes reasonably incidental to the mining or removal of the
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