Tonopah bonanza. [volume] (Butler City [i.e. Butler], Nev.) 1901-1909, 1904-11-19
TONOPAH BONANZA.
THE VALID LOCATION.
Mineral Bearing Rock in Place
the Only Requirement.

At times serious disputes arise be-
tween the adverse claimants of a
mining location as to the sufficieney
of the discovery. As to the charac-
ter of rock in a discovery the statutes
are silent, the only requirement be-
ing mineral bearing rock in place.
The mineral bearing rock need not
necessarily be a vein or deposit OF
definite shape, size or form, but must
be mineral bearing. Not infrequently
valuable mineral-gold or silver, or
copper, lead or zinc sulphide-may
occur in payable quantity in n por-
ton of a rock when another portion
Of the same rock mass, a short dis
lance away, may be commercially
worthless or actually destitute of
metallic minerals, or their sulphides,
or Of the secondary products CT their
oxidation.
The words of the statute are,
''veins or lodes of quartz or other
rock in place. What constitutes a
lode is a somewhat indefinite propo-
%sition, but it is as often determined
by commercial as by geological con-
siderations, BY "ln place" is meant
in its original position and not in de-
tached pieces in the alluvial, or in a
rock slide on the side Of the noun
tain.
Payable mineral is not confined in
its occurrence to quartz. 1t is often
found in limestone, in shale, sand
stone and various eruptive and in
trusive and metamorphic rocks. Not
infrequently the mineral bearing rock
or ore is similar in appearance to the
barren rock which surrounds it, and
the rock only ceases to be considered
ore when it no longer pays for its ex-
traction and treatment.
1t is for this reason that the phrase
''or other rock in place. was intro
duced into the statnte, There is
nothing ambiguous in the expression
crock in place" Every class of
claims that may be classed as a vein,
or lode, may be patented under the
laws as a vein or lode Of rock in place.
This class OF mineral lands contem-
plates all Of those wherein the min
eral is contained in veins, whether
assure or cash veins, or any of the
several other forms OF mineral dis
position. Miners not infrequently
claim that a newly discovered vein is
not lin place. but has slipped down
the mountain or hillside from some
other claim. This is rarely the case,
and usually there would be no diff.
Guilty for a geologist to prove to the
satisfaction Of the most skeptical
that nothing of the sort had ever
occurred there.
The word mineral" as applied tt
veins in the statutes has a somewhat
different significance than when useC
otherwise-for all rocks, whether
metal bearing Or not, are recognized
as being composed Of one or more
minerals. Mineral, in the mining
statutes, has a more restricted mean
ing, and is understood to imply al
ore or mineral substance having
commercial value. A gold bearing
rock is properly mineral, and grant
has been determined by the court
to be mineral. A valid discover,
OF mineral bearing rock in place
may be made and a claim take.
wherever mineral a be found o
the u~noccupied public lands OF tn
United States, and the courts hav
never insisted that mineral must b
found having a commercial value, /
either quality or quantity. This
left to the judgment OF the locator
who is presumed to know whether o
not the prospect" is sufficient
good to locate and develop under tn
requirements OF the law. A statut
that required payable ore in sigh
before a valid location could be mad
would make many mining location
impossible.
Judge Hawley, in the case OF Broo
VS.. Justice Nj. Co, So Fed, 106, 124
said: Logically carried out, it woul
prohibit a miner from making an