Mining Law of 1872

The Mining Law of 1872 is the act of May 10, 1872 (17 Stat. 91), also known as the General Mining Act of 1872. It remains the law under which mining claims are located on federal land. Its core provision, now at 30 U.S.C. 22, declares that "all valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging to the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, shall be free and open to exploration and purchase."

The laws it built on

The mining laws include two earlier acts: the Lode Law of July 26, 1866, and the Placer Law of July 9, 1870. Some provisions still in force trace to them. The 160-acre limit on an association placer claim, for example, derives from the act of 1870.

What the law provides

• Who may locate: citizens of the United States and those who have declared their intention to become citizens (30 U.S.C. 22). Under the current regulations, business entities organized under the laws of any state also qualify (43 CFR 3830.3).
• Lode claims: no more than 1,500 feet along the vein and 300 feet on each side of the middle of the vein (30 U.S.C. 23).
• Discovery: "no location of a mining claim shall be made until the discovery of the vein or lode within the limits of the claim located" (30 U.S.C. 23).
• Possession: locators have "the exclusive right of possession and enjoyment of all the surface included within the lines of their locations" (30 U.S.C. 26).
• Extralateral rights: a locator holds the veins whose top or apex lies inside the surface lines of the claim, even where a vein departs from the perpendicular and passes beyond the side lines underground.
• Placer claims: no more than 20 acres for each individual claimant (30 U.S.C. 35), and no more than 160 acres for an association (30 U.S.C. 36).
• Mill sites: nonmineral land, no more than 5 acres (30 U.S.C. 42).
• Annual labor: not less than $100 of labor or improvements on each claim each year (30 U.S.C. 28).
• Patent: purchase of the land at $5 per acre for a lode claim or $2.50 per acre for a placer claim (30 U.S.C. 29 and 37).

What Congress has changed since

• 1920: fuels and certain other minerals became leasable instead of locatable.
• 1955: common varieties of sand, gravel, stone, pumice, pumicite, and cinders were removed from the Mining Law.
• 1976: the Federal Land Policy and Management Act required mining claims to be recorded with BLM.
• 1993: Congress established the annual claim maintenance fee, in lieu of the assessment work requirement, by an act of August 10, 1993 (30 U.S.C. 28f).
• 1994: a moratorium on accepting and processing mineral patent applications took effect on 10/1/1994. BLM accepts no new patent applications.

How it works today

The statute supplies the rights. The regulations at 43 CFR parts 3830 through 3839 supply the procedure for locating, recording, and maintaining a mining claim, and 43 CFR subpart 3809 governs operations on the ground. The stated purpose of subpart 3809 is to prevent unnecessary or undue degradation of public lands by operations authorized by the mining laws.

Why the date still matters

The law draws a line at May 10, 1872. Lode claims located before that date are governed as to length by the customs and laws in force when they were located. Research on old mining districts has to account for which rules applied on the date of each location.