Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1920-11-06
UTAH-APFX VICTOR IN
 FAMOUS MINE LAWSUIT

On the 21st inst, Judge Tilman D.. Johnson of the federal court, rendered his decision in the litigation between the Utah Apex Mining Company and the Utah Consolidated Mining Com pany. The decision disposed of six suits, two by the Utah Apex against the Utah Consolidated and four by the Utah Consolidated against the Utah Apex. The suits were tried during November and December, 1919. The amount of money involved and the importance of the legal questions in controversy characterized the suits at once as unusual.
 During the progress of the trial eVi- dence was introduced to show that more than $1,00O,OOO worth of ore had been taken by the Utah Consolidated from ground which the decision holds to be the property of the Utah Apex company In the matter of the lat eral rights affecting the Dana ifs sure, the only case in which the Utah Consolidated is favoreds the court held that the Utah Apex did not present a preponderance of testimony which would have justified favorable de- cree.
 President and General Manager R. H. Charming of the Utah Consolidated Company has stated that his company will at once move to take the cases decided against his company to the United States circuit court of appeals.
 The preparation of the facts was so complete that one attending the trial had visualized the entire surface and underground area of Bingham Can yon, or at least that portion of the Bingham district in which the prop critics of the litigants is situated. Eminent attorneys represented both sides of the case and the facts were presented to the court through score of mining experts of international reputation.
 Question Was What Constitutes a
 "LOde."
 The struggle turned upon the old question of what constitutes "lode. " Admittedly, if the Utah Consolidated was to prevail it was upon the theory of extra lateral rights. All the ore in controversy lay beneath the surface of the Apex property.
 The Bingham district is geologi- cally series of limestone beds vary ing in thickness from 100 to 400 feet and separated by beds of quartzite several hundred feet in thickness. That the ore is mainly in the lime stone or closely connected with it is admitted. The two principal ore bod ies in controversy were in the lime stone-one in the Highland Boy" lime and the other in the "Yampa" lime. Each of these lime beds has it's apex in claims belonging to the Utah Consolidated. Each of them is several hundred feet in thickness. All of the experts admitted that the min eralization had it's source in and was closely related to the porphyry intru- sions which had come up from the southeast and had absorbed, passed through and otherwise come in con- tact with the sedimentary beds.
 By this process of mountain making the lime had in some sections pro- foundly altered, fractured and opened to the mineral-bearing solutions. The lime being more soluble than the quartzite, had yielded more readily to the solutions and therefore the ore deposits were chiefly in or adjacent to the lime.
 What the Trial Determined
 Commencing a generation ago the companies owning the apexes of these lime beds had developed immense deposits of ore lying like a sheet be- tween the lime as a hanging and the quartzite as a footwall. From these deposits the Utah Consolidated, had extracted, as the evidence showed, in excess of $40,000,000 in ore. As its workings descended down the lime beds they came in contact with a thin sheet of porphyry. Prior to 1916 the lime beyond this porphyry re- mained uneXplored.
 In 1916 the Apex company, follow ing from it's surface down along well defined Assures, had developed sub-