Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1919-11-15
COPPER MINING BILL
 WILL AID PRODUCTION

WILL AID PRODUCTION
 Hon. Carl Hayden, Congressman
 from Arizona has introduced a bill
 H. R. 10433 for the disposal of pub lie lands in Arizona, New Mexico
 Nevada and Utah containing copper at depth. The legislation proposed by
 the Hayden bill is designed to meet
 and deal with a condition to which the existing federal mining laws are not, fro mthe practical standpoint
 applicable.
 The important copper deposits in
 the states mentioned, do not occur in
 technical vein or lode formation, but
 in extensive lowgrade bodies, usually underlying a heavy overburden of wash, conglomerate, or non-mineral- bearing formation. To discover such underlying deposits deep and expen- sive drilling or shaft sinking is nec- essary, requiring months, adn even years, for it's accomplishment. Under existing law a discovery in such a drill hole or shaft could serve to val
 olny one claim, 1900 by 600 feet, or or an area of only about twenty acres, which is absurdly insufficient to jus tify the great outlay involved.
 In the past the mining communities have attempted to meet the conditions by locating claims and doing annual assessment work in the overburden. Such claims, in most instances un- supported by any semblance of discov- cry, have been by the communities recognized as property and sold as such, but generally speaking, the ground has remained undeveloped. In many instances meagre surface showings, not connected with the un- deriving deposits, have been claimed as discoveries and even made the basis of patent proceedings. In the early days the land department did not critically examine into the matter of discovery unless the question were raised by protest or contest, and large numbers of such claims were patented. This was the case at Bisbee, Arizona, where the ore formation occurrs at a depth of 1000 feet or more. In later years the department has established the practice of requiring detailed showing as to the character and quail ity of discovery claimed and of mak- ing, through it's field service, an in- vestigation on the ground. As a re- suit, the department has been con- fronted with the question as to wheth- CT inconsequential mineral showings in the overburden could be accepted as sufficient to constitute discovery, as in the case of the Rough Rider and other claims which were finally pat ented because it was felt that the pre- vious patenting of similar claims in the vicinity had established a rule of property.
 But, generally speaking, lands of the character contemplated by the proposed legislation cannot now be patented under the existing mining laws unless discoveries are made by deep drilling or shaft sinking. On the other hand, large areas of such land were in the early days patented un- der the non-mineral laws under the rule which then prevailed that land could not be classified as mineral in character, or patented as a mining claim, unless mineral had been actu- ally disclosed. In recent years, how ever, the department had adopted the rule that, through geological deduc- tion as to underlying deposits, land may be classified as known mineral in character, and now declines to patent such lands under the non-mineral laws g-.
 There are thus large areas of land in the. four states mentioned which the land department recognizes, or would recognize, as being mineral in but which remain undevel- | oped because title thereto cannot, as a practical proposition, be acquired under the present mining law.
 To justify the great expense of ex- ploration by drilling or sinking shafts to great depth, as we'll as the great outlay in working shafts, machinery and equipment for actual mining oper- ations, it is necessary that reason ably large acreage be acquired or con- trolled. To operate on the extensive scale required, not only are extensive ore bodies requisite, but large area of surface is also required for reduc- tion plants, tailings dumps, etc.
 The proposed legislation is design ed to encourage the exploration and development of such lands by giving to any one who will undertake deep exploration work the right to control and acquire an area of not to exceed l,2sO acres (which is about the mini mum area now held by any of the large porphyry copper mining com panies) upon conditions carefully de- signed to prevent abuse of the privi-