The Eureka sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1902-current, 1922-02-04
v A PRESS
TAXING IDLE
MINING PROPERTIES

Tonopah Times: Some student
browsing through the statutes of Ne
vada has dug out a law whose en-
forcement would go a long way to-
ward arousing activity in mining.
This is a statute giving County As
SCISSORS authority to increase valua-
tions on patented mining claims long
standing idle to such a limit that 1t
would be less expensive in the long
run to maintain operations than each
year to meet an extremely high tax.
Since the discovery the suggestion has
met with the approval of mining edi-
tors and Assessors. The latter well
come IL as a means of stimulating de-
velopment and increasing county val
uations at a time when business Is
found slowing down. 1t is not neeeS-
sary that the power conferred on the
Assessor should be opressively APP
piled, as the exercise of common sense
and mutual adjustment would bring
about an understanding of where the
club should be used or clemency
shown.
Tonopah is a splendid field for try
ing the experiment. Rich companies
holding patented acreage are resting
on their rights without any effort to
sun development or permit any
n to prospect their domain. Vast
blocks of ground both in the eastern
and western sections of the Tonopah
district remain idle. Various excus-
es are offered, but the fact that these
companies are doing nothing to prove
the value of their holdings should be
ample reason for making them the
target for assessors. Some of the
worst offenders are Divide companies
which disposed of enormous stock is
sues, put on a prospecting plant and
gallows frame to photograph for pro-
motion literature. and then sat down
and waited for others in the vicinity
to prosecute development to prove up
the formation. Some of these COM
panies found 1t more economical to
use a portion of their treasures in Sc
curing patent than to continue in the
open list subject to relocation and
forfeiture If the annual assessment
work was not attended to.
These companies having secured
patent are willing to rest idle with
the intention of not doing another
stroke of work unless others prove
up a ledge of payable ore. These
owners are worse than the claim hog
who goes out during the rush to a
new district and blankets the land
scape with his notices. The claim
hog must do his annual work, and If
this work is not done in full compli-
ance with legal requirements the va
lidity of his title is open. In the dis
trict worth anything there are num-
keen-eyed prospectors on the
alert to see that the claim hog accom-
plishes what the law contempIates,
which is roughly estimated at 500
a claim. The patent hog gets off with
an assessed valuation of $500 a claim,
which releases him from all obliga-
lions by paying a tax of from SIS to
$25 for immunity from Interference.
Some of the most notorious wildcat
tiers in the vicinity of Tonopah reply
to their stockholders inquiry about
prospects with the assurance that the
ground is patented and cannot be
lost. The mining law never contem-
plated this practice, which is tanta-
mount to evasion of the fundament-
ais of mining locations, but the Gov
eminent is helpless and its becomes
the duty of the County Assessors to
Q that pressure is brought to bear
on the officers to drag their holdings
out of desuetude.