The copper era and Morenci leader. [volume] (Clifton, Ariz.) 1911-1929, 1920-09-10
reinstatement OF
ASSESSMENT LAW
WILL LCAUSELOSES,
REPORT
500 Work Rhqdired For Owners to
Retain Claim

The stroke of the clock at midnight
December 81, will release about twen-
ty-f1ve per cent, if not more, of the
mining claims in the state, including
Cochise county, because Of the re-
quirements to do assessment work
this year, before midnight December
81. For nearly four years assessment
work has been eliminated by act of
congress, owing to the war. This year
there has been no elimination and it
will be necessary under the law of
the stase to 10 1na hundred dollars
worth of work on each and every
claim, or one hundred dollars worth
for each claim in group.
During the last three or four years,
prpspectors and locators, tempted by
the permit to file notices to hold and
withhold assessment work, have To-
Gated claim after claim IN the hope of
sale. In some cases., not many per-
haps, location work has been done. In
the majority notices have been stuck
on old location holes, some twenty
years old, and properly registered as
new work in location.
During the years of exemption from
assessment work, the holes have chal-
lenged identification as new work and
So have passed muster
AS a result whole mining districts
have been covered with these yagrant
notices, holding back development
really for the notices meant nothing
more than for sale notices in the eyes
of prospective investors and working
prospectors.
There are some men in the state
who hold under such notices as many
as two hundred or more claims, and in
this lavish expansion, Cochise county
men have not been any more conser
vative.
To do the work on such claims would
require expenditures of thousands OF
dollars, moYe than the claimants ever
had or could reasonably expect to
have.
These claims will for the most part
be open to location by others after
midnight December 81, for unless new
assessment work is shown on the
property the law opens the property
automatically to the next entry man
and his right to jump the claim is un
constestable.
Mining industry inactive
| Just now the mining industry
| throughout the state is inactive be
cause of many conditions, one OF
which is that investors and mining
scouts have sized up the situation and
are wise enough to know that it is not
| good business to buy property which
| the owner cannot possibly expect te
| hold by assessment work another
year. BY waiting until the fatal hour
| the property can be located and prop
.erty mined.
Situation Growing Crucial
The situation is growing crucial as
| the remaining months of the veal
! grow fewer, for the reason that the
i cotton picking in various parts of the
| state will draw thousands Of laborer:
who normally can be hired to do as
t.sessment work on mining property.
Miners cannot be had and wages
are so high that if obtainable they
cannot be kept on the job until the
work in big holdings are completed
No Labor. Available
During the last week mining meI
have waited weeks in town to gel
| shifts to go to isolated properties bu
have found it impossible in view o
the prices offered for cotton picking
Must Work Claim
Formerly a ten foot hole was con
sidered sufficient to represent hun
dred dollars worth of work. Nov
however, this is changed to mean the
payment of $100 worth of work, fol
which performance an affidavit from
won hteers shrdlu cmfwyp vbgkqj
| the owners that expended the amoun
and from the man doing the work
that he received the amount together
! with an affidavit as to the amount o
work done.
| There has been much activity b.
men holding such blocks who are
unable to get their work done, to take
in partners on the work so that the
expenses might be cut down. But part
ners are scarce, although the chance
to get in on a good block of claim:
| for future operations and sale is one
of the most attractive CANDLES in an(
! around this and other.