snv_002024_p0232D

Mining Assessment WOrk
Official Construction of the Late Law of Congress
Department of the Interior 
General Land Office. 
Washington, D.C. May 1,1880.
H.N. Copp,Eso.-Sir:-- I am [not legible] receipt of your letter of the 18th ultimo referring to the question of relocating mines under the law of january 22,1880, and asking the following questions:
“1. When does a mine located February 1st, 1880, become subject to relocation?
“2. When does a mine located April 25th, 1875, on which the annual work has heretofore been promptly done, and improvements made, become subject to relocation; provided no work has been done since April 8th, 1879?
The second section of the act to which you refer is as follows:
“Provided, That the period within which the work required to be done annually on all unpatented mineral claims shall commence on the first day of January succeeding the date of location of such claim; and this section shall apply to all claims located since the 10th day of May, Anno Domini, eighteen hundred and seventy-two.”
It will be seen that said law seeks to fix the calendar year as the uniform period within which the annual improvements, required by R.S. Section 2324, must be made, and as locations are made at different dates through the year, the first annual expenditures are made due within one year from a common date, to-wit: the first of January next following the location; thereafter they become due with the expiration of each calendar year.
Hence the first annual expenditures upon a claim located February 1,1880, become due at the expiration of one year from January 1, 1881, to-wit: January 1,1882. On which the claim becomes subject to adverse location if improvements are not made.
In order to apply the law to a claim located April 8th, 1875, it is necessary to calculate from the date of location, as there is no other provision for its application, and it is retroactive, and embraces all unpatented claims located since May 10th, 1872. The first expenditures upon this location are, therefore. Reckoned to be due within one year from January 1st, 1876m to-wit: January 1st; 1877, and annually thereafter, by the calendar year, or within the calendar year 1879, the claim is not subject to relocation, and will become so subject only upon the expiration of 1880, and a failure of expenditures for that year. If no expenditures were made in the calendar year 1879, or since, the claim is subject to adverse location.
J.A. Williamson, 
Commissioner.
Relocating And Jumping
What Constitutes $ 100 worth of Labor and Improvements
Some twenty odd mining claims have been either jumped relocated within the past ten days. Several claims held by a person not a citizen were relocated, and a number have been jumped or relocated, on the ground that sufficient work had not been done to comply with the law in such cases made and provided. The [not legible] seems to be a difference of opinion as to what constitutes the $ 100 expenditure required by the United States laws. Some persons in the district have annually expended $ 80 for labor, and added $ [not legible] for cost of powder, fuse tools, etc., making the total $ 100, and upon application to the Recorder received a certificate that the lawful amount of labor had been performed. The parties who have relocated a number of such claims hold that $ 100 worth of actual labor must be performed each year, and that the law has not been complied with. The point is one which may cause [not legible] litigation, if it is not better defined by law or settled by decision. The [not legible] reading of the statute is as follows: “ or each claim located after the tenth day of May, eighteen hundred and seventy two and until a patent has been issued there for not less than $ 100 worth of labor shall be performed or improvements made during each.” The record of the affidavit of the claimant “ that at least $ 100 worth of labor or improvements ” have been performed or made is prima facie evidence of the performance of such labor, but so far as we known the question as to whether the moneys expended for powder, tools, etc., can be counted as part of the $ 100 worth of “ labor or improvement “ has never been decided by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. But the statute says “ the miners of each mining district may makes 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, and amount of work necessary to hold possession of a mining claim,” and it is held by some persons that the last clause of the quotation gives the miners the right, by local laws or custom, to say what shall constitute $ 100 worth of labor or improvements; for instance, that sinking a shaft or running a tunnel a specified number of feet should be worth $ 100.
The custom in this district has been to count the cost of materials used in making permanent improvements on claims such as sinking shaft or driving tunnel or drift, and claimants think this will hold good in the courts. However, until the law is made more definite, or the matter settled by decision, perhaps it would be well for parties holding valuable claims to perform fully $ 100
Assessment Work on Claims.
The year during which work on mining claims must be done to comply with the United States regulations, begins on the 1st day of January. This is required by the amendment to the laws which was passed in March, 1880. We have published this several times, but here it is against, to make sure no miner will miss it.
“ Provided, that the period within which the work required to be done annually on all unpatented mineral claims shall commence on the first day of January succeeding the date of the location of such claim, and this section shall apply to all claims located since the 10th day of May, 1872.”
Under the old law the year began from date of location. Now, however, the miner must begin his work on January 1st, to expend the $ 100 on “labor or improvements.”
A claim located October 1,1879, requires the expenditure within the year of 1880, and what ever may have been expended during 1879 will not answer the requirements of expenditure in 1880. It appears by reason of the change made in the requirements of the act of May, 1872, by the amendatory law, that a claim located on any date subsequent to the 1st day of January, 1879, requires no further expenditure during the remainder of that year than is made necessary by the local laws.
We hear that in several camps people are ready to jump claims on Jan. 1st, if the miners are not present. People have gone from this city up country to relocate claims if the original owners are not on hand. In one camp, a band of men have organized to go out at 12 midnight on the last day of the year, and relocate those claims where no one is at work. This kind of game, however, will not work, and if the owner was at hand on his claim at the usual morning working hour, his rights would no doubt be protected by the courts if it came to a contest.
It behooves all claim owners, however, to look out for their property and see that it is not relocated.
The Mining Law.
Many of our miners do not seem to have a correct understanding of the mining law passed by Congress last January, which regulates the time in which assessment work shall be done and also expressly defines what constitutes the annual labor on a mining claim. The law does not enlarge the labor to be performed, but merely fixes the time during which it is to be done. The object in passing the law was to establish a uniform time within which the annual labor should be performed. The law says: “ The period during which the annual labor shall be performed shall commence on the first day of January succeeding the date of location,” etc. It must be observed that it is the period of a term which begins on the first of January and not the work. In other words, if a claim is located October 1st, 1880, you have from the first day of January to the 31st day of December of this year in which to do your work. Instead of commencing your work on the first day of January, you may do it in May or June, July or August. You have the whole year in which to do it. Anyone who will take the trouble to read the law cannot go wrong. It does not say you shall perform your labor in January, but it says the year during which you shall do it shall commence on the first day of January. Now you can perform your work any time during that year. Another misapprehension which exists is founded on the sinking of a discovery shaft. The sinking of a discovery shaft is not annual labor. You are required to [not legible] [not legible] hundred dollars’ worth of [not legible] year on your mine