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Show LEGAL ASPECTS OF MINERAL RESOURCES EXPLOITATION 723 been purchased by the locator.174 Title based on adverse possession under the statute of limitations of the state or territory where the land was located was permitted. Placers could be purchased at $2.50 per acre, and the statute did not authorize the reservation of known lodes in placer patents, a point later corrected in the 1872 Act.175 The Mining Law of May 10, 1872 It is often mistakenly assumed that the Mining Law of 1872176 was merely a codification of the two earlier mining statutes. Far from this, it contained numerous substantive changes, although the basic policy of "free mining" was, of course, continued. The principal changes are briefly noted here: 1. The preamble (Section 1) opened with the often overlooked statement "That all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States" are open. The term "valuable" was not in the 1866 Act which applied to all "mineral lands." The change is significant, and the exact wording was quite properly emphasized by Mr. Justice Black in a recent decision of the Supreme Court dealing with the problem of what constitutes a "discovery."177 The above language also substitutes "lands belonging to the United States" for the phrase "lands of the public domain" in the original law. Although the present wording might be broad enough to include "acquired lands," the contrary is usually announced by modern text writers. 2. Future lode locations after discovery of a vein may not exceed 1,500 feet in length along the lode or vein and 300 feet on each side of the middle of such vein at the surface. Local mining district rules or 174 Smelting Co. v. Kemp, 104 U.S. 636 (1881) . 375 Cranes Gulch Min. Co. v. Scherrer, 134 Cal. 350, 66 Pac. 487 (1901). 17017 Stat. 91 (1872), 30 U.S.C. § 21 et seq. (1964). state laws may limit the width of such claims to not less than 25 feet on each side of the middle of the vein at the surface. Surface end lines are required to be parallel. Locations prior to the date of the act continue to be subject to the law existing at the time of the location. 3. Placer claims located by a single individual and based upon a single discovery are limited to 20 acres. An association of individuals may locate up to 160 acres on each discovery. 4. Both placer and lode locators are required to perform $100 worth of development work annually in order to hold their claims as against subsequent locators. 5. Five acres of nonmineral land may be acquired for mill-site purposes. 6. Miners with tunnels 3,000 feet into a hillside have a prior right to all theretofore unknown veins and lodes cut by the tunnel. 7. There were special requirements as to marking of locations and recording of location notices. For the most part, state or mining camp rules were adopted for these purposes. Despite these rather substantial changes, discussions in Congress178 dwelt primarily on the provisions of the new act which simplified the procedure for obtaining patents. The substantive changes were rarely referred to. Indeed, Congressman Sargent of California, author of the bill, went so far as to assure his colleagues: This bill simply oils the machinery a little; it does not change the principles of the law; it does not change tenures; it simply provides that testimony shall be more easily taken, fees reduced, and generally deals with matters of that kind.179 177 United States v. Coleman, 88 Sup. Ct. 1327 (1968) . 178 Cong. Globe, 42d Cong., 2d Sess., 532-34, 2457-62,2897-99 (1872). 178 Id. at 532. |