The San Francisco call., 1898-07-10
Mining Congress Con- demnS EXtraIateral
 Rights to Veins.
A Big Colonization Plant to Be ReVived-What the Copper Shelters Do for Quartz
 Mines.

The International Mining Congress has
 ended its four days session at Salt Lake | City, and the full report of the proceed | ings, speeches and papers will be read
 with great interest by mining men when
 published.
 The most notable thing done was the | adoption of the following resolution: Re 1 solved, that it is the sense of this Inter-
 national Mining Congress that the mining
 laws of the United States be so amended
 as to do away with extralateral rights in
 mining claims; and
 Resolved, That we hereby instruct the l president and secretary of this congress l to forward at the opening of the next ses- l sion of the United States Congress to the ] Public Land committees of the Senate
 ana also to the Secretary of the Interior and the Commissioner of the General l Land Office each d copy of this resolu- ton"
 The majority report of the committee on revision of the Federal mining laws appointed at the meeting last year was lengthy one, covering many points, and changes in the manner of making loca- ttonS. The report also strongly favored the abolition of the eXtralateral right. In this it represented the opinion of the vast majority of intelligent mining men of the West. The minority report vigorously combated this proposition. The conven- IlOI OGCllHeu to auOpI elIneT report, put by good majority adopted the resolution quoted, simply favoring the abolition of extralateral rights.
 Such a revolution in American mining law will not be accomplished without a long and hard battle and it will be dis cussed for a good while to come. With the exception of Matabeleland in South Africa, the United States is the only country in the world which allows a miner to follow his vein outside the verti- cal boundaries of his surface claim, but years of enjoyment of this right have made it appear just and its withdrawal a wrong. Everywhere else in the world property limits extend vertically down. ward with mines as well as with farms and quarrieS. The extra-lateral right has furnished more than nine-tenths of the mining litigation of this country, and the cost of this has been hundreds of mill lions.
 Another encouraging development has come to Shasta County, and especially to the town of Kennel, which feels thar a new boom has come. Charles Buffers, the eminent mining engineer and metal lurgist. who for several years has been so prominent In South African mining is the cause of this delight. The Reddinx Free Press says:
 ''The Butters chlorination plant at Ken net, which has been idle for a number of years while its owner was away in South Africa, is to be extensively inn proved and put in condition to resume operations Charles Buffers has given
  haul and repair the Hume and ditch talk ing water out of Backbone Creek and where necessary entire sections of Hume will be replaced. Just what MT But ters intentions may be with reference to his plant at Kennel is not known. other than that it is to be placed in con- possible. It is quite likely however that the capacity of the plant will be greatly increased, and It is possible that Mr. Buffers will take hold of some of the big n1it 1xvs,N1 base range about Kennel At any rate. the inforpation that the plant is to re- sume operations will be good news, not only to the people of Kennel but to conn ty mining men in general"
 A writer in the Bedding Searchlight gives some interesting figures in illustrat- ing the value of quartz mining of the Mountain Copper Company's smelters at Keswick. This company buys for Aux great quantities of the base quartz ores of the region, which cannot be worked by are as consequence now operating at a good profit which could not be worked without costly smelting plants.
 We now can market ore that was not salable before the starting of this enter prise. Ore under the value of $50 per ton and not free milling (much of Shasta County's ore is noD was of no value to miners without smeters Following is the cost of marketing a low-grade silica ore in 10-ton lots at the Mountain Cop per Company's works: Let us take an ore aSSaylng Sz5 per ton. working charges are $3 50, and 90 per cent of the assay value is paid by the Mountain Copper Company to the miner, or $22 50; deduct l ing working charges, 8 50, and we have $19 net. To ship the ore to any other market costs the following: Working charges, $16; railroad freight, $3 80; 92 per cent paid by smelter to the miner, or & | per cent off, s2, making a total cost of l $21 80 and only a net proceed of s 20 per | ton to the miners, as against $19 When | ore is shipped to the Mountain Copper 1 Company the miner receives S15 so more | money on S25 ore from the Mountain Cop per Company than from any place else | They have higher charges for working | a heavy sulphuret ore, but in no case do | they exceed one-half of the cost of other | markets.
 Lack of transportation facilities Is the greatest drawback to the development of many rich mining regions in the State. The task of developing a mine and set ting up mill in mountain regions far from roads is sometimes a stupendous one A small but typical instance is thus described by the Bedding Free Press: Louis Moore, the freighting contractor. has returned from Trinity County. after spending four or five weeks there in su- the delivery of a five-stamp luartz mill to the Globe mine near Cam 1 yon City. In taking in the machinery over l range of mountains the wagon had 10 0e drawn up and along the ridges with block and tackle. There was no road, and only In occasional places could eight ,ards before block and tackle would again to ha tIGad At fba oha l