Mining Law

Under the influence of two opposite theories of ownership in mines, (1) that mineral deposits (especially gold and silver) belonged to the sovereign and could only be worked under grant or conce ion from him, and (2) that the original discoverer of a deposit had rights as against all others (the principle of mining freedom), there have developed in different countries codes and regulations forming a body of mining law, standing in many respects apart from the body of common or of statute law. A brief history of these is in R. W. Raymonds' Report for 1869 as U. S. Commi ioner of Mineral Statistics. An American edition of Bainbridge's Law of Mines and Minerals was pub. 1871. The chief mining legislation of the U. S. dates from 1866, and rests largely on the local usages that grew up in the mining camps of the Pacific States and in the Rocky Mountain region after the discovery of gold in Cal. 1848. Copp's U. S. Mineral Lands may be referred to.