Section 1. The term
"mineral claim" as used in these regulations shall be understood to
mean "lode claim," and the term "mining claim" shall be understood to
include both "lode" and "placer" claims. A placer claim shall be
understood to mean a claim of land more valuable for placer mining,
stone quarrying, or for the securing of earth for use in tile, brick,
pottery, paint, or other manufacture, or of petroleum, guano, or other
mineral product, than for other purposes. The rules and regulations for
the securing of claims so defined as placer claims shall be as for
placer claims as mentioned in this Act.
Sec. 2. Until other officers may be designated by
the Government of the Philippine Islands as mining recorders, the
provincial secretaries shall act as such in their respective provinces.
In provinces or districts where civil government has not been
established such military officers as may be designated for that
purpose by the Commanding General, Division of the Philippines, shall
act as mining recorders.
Sec. 3. All declaration and affidavits regarding
mining claims shall be recorded in the order in which they are filed
for record, and under no circumstances shall any departure be made from
that course.
The form of declaration of location of a mining claim shall be as
follows:
DECLARATION OF LOCATION.
The undersigned hereby declares and gives notice that, having complied
with the provisions of the Act of Congress, approved July 1, 1902,
relative to the location of mining claims, he has located
________________ linear feet on a lode of mineral-bearing rock,
situated in the barrio of _______________ within the jurisdictional
limits of the municipality of _______________ Province of
________________, district of ________________ Island of
_________________, P.I.
That the name of the above location is ___________________ the mineral
claim, and that the same was located by him on the ___________ day of
________________, A.D. 19 ___.
That there is written on post No. 1 (here insert an exact copy of what
is inscribed on post No. 1); and upon post No. 2 (here insert an exact
copy of what is inscribed on post No. 2).
That the said claim is situate (here state as accurately as possible,
preferably by course and distance, the position of the claim with
reference to some natural object or permanent monument).
_________________
Locator.
Witness:
___________________
Witness:
___________________
Sec. 4. The mining recorder shall note on each
instrument filed for record the year, month, and day, and the hour and
minute of the day on which the same was so filed, and after it has been
recorded he shall indorse on the back thereof a certificate in the
following form:
OFFICE OF THE MINING RECORDER,
_______________, PROVINCE OF _______________ DISTRICT' OF
____________________, ____________________, 1 9 _____.
The within instrument was filed for record in this office at __________
o'clock and minutes ____ m., on the ______________ day of
_______________, A.D. 19 ____; and has been recorded in book of Records
of Mining Claims, at page _____________.
___________________
Mining Recorder.
Sec. 5. For recording each declaration of location
of a mining claim, and for each affidavit accompanying the same, the
mining recorder shall collect a fee of one dollar in currency of the
United States or its equivalent in local currency at the authorized
ratio.
Sec. 6. The fees collected by authority of the
preceding section shall be turned into the treasury of the province in
which the mining claim for the recording of which said fees may be paid
is situate; or in provinces or districts where civil government has not
been established, into the office of the Collector of Internal Revenue.
Sec. 7. The books necessary for the recording of
mining claims shall be provided by the provincial authorities of the
respective provinces, or in provinces or districts where civil
government has not been established, by the Chief of the Bureau of
Public Lands.
Sec. 8. In addition to the requirements of
sections twenty-three and twenty-four of the Act of Congress, approved
July first, nineteen hundred and two, in regard to placing posts
numbers one and two on the line of location, and marking the line
between them, each locator of a mineral claim shall establish each of
the four corners of the claim by marking a standing tree or rock in
place, or by setting in the ground, where practicable, a post or stone.
Each corner shall be distinctly marked to indicate that it is the
northeast, southeast, or other corner, as the case may be, of the claim
in question; and the posts or stones used to mark such corners shall be
of the dimensions required by those regulations for posts and stones
marking corners or angles of a placer claim.
Sec. 9. The locator of a placer claim shall post
upon the same a notice containing the name of the claim, designating it
as a placer claim, the name of each locator, the date of the location,
and the number of hectares claimed. He shall also define the boundaries
of the claim by marking a standing tree or rock in place, or by setting
a post or stone at each corner or angle of the claim. When a post is
used it must be at least five inches in diameter or four inches in each
side by four feet six inches in length, and, where practicable, set one
foot in the ground and surrounded by a mound of earth or stone four
feet in diameter by two feet in height. When a stone, not a rock in
place, is used, it must be not less than six inches on each side by two
and one-half feet in length, and must be set so as to project half its
length above the ground. Where a stone, a rock in place, is used, a
cross must be cut in the stone, the arms of which cross must be at
least four inches long, intersecting, approximately, at right angles
and in their centers, the cutting to be at least one-half inch deep.
The intersection of the arms shall constitute the corner. Each tree,
rock in place, stake, or stone used to designate a corner or angle of a
placer claim must be so marked as to clearly indicate its purpose, and
the objects selected to designate the corners of a claim shall be
marked with a series of consecutive numbers, thus: "Cor. No. 1," "Cor.
No. 2," "Cor. No. 3," and so forth: Provided, That nothing in this
section shall be understood to require the establishment and marking of
any corner or angle of a placer claim located upon surveyed public
lands at a point where a corner of the Philippine system of public land
surveys has previously been established, in which case it shall suffice
in describing said claim for record to correctly describe said corner
of the public surveys, and to state that such corner stands for corner
number one, corner number two, or corner number three, and so forth, as
the case may be, of such placer claim.
Sec. 10. Within thirty days after the location
thereof every locator of a placer claim shall record the same with the
mining recorder of the province or district in which the claim is
situated.
Sec. 11. The record of a placer claim shall
consist of a declaration of location reciting all the facts necessary
to a perfect identification of the claim, and shall contain a true copy
of the notice posted thereon at the date of location, as well as a
description of the claim as staked and monumented, showing the length
and approximate compass bearing, as near as may be, of each side of
course thereof, and stating in what manner the respective corners are
marked, whether by a standing tree, rock in place, post, or stone, and
giving in detail the distinguishing marks that are written or cut on
each, and also stating as accurately as possible, preferably by course
and distance, the position of the claim with reference to some
prominent natural object or permanent monument.
Sec. 12. No placer claim shall be recorded unless
the declaration of location be accompanied by an affidavit made by the
applicant, or some person on his behalf cognizant of the facts, that
the notice required by section nine of these regulations has been
posted upon the claim, and that the ground thereby embraced is valuable
for placer-mining purposes; that the ground applied for is unoccupied
by any other person.
Sec. 13. No mining claim shall be recorded unless
the declaration be accompanied by proof that the locator, or each of
them in case there be more than one, is a citizen of the United States
of America or of the Philippine Islands. The proof of citizenship
required by this section may be that set forth in section thirty-five
of the Act of Congress approved July first, nineteen hundred and two.
Sec. 14. If at any time the locator of any mining
claim heretofore or hereafter located, or his assigns, shall apprehend
that his original notice or declaration was defective, erroneous, or
that the requirements of the law had not been complied with before
recording; or shall be desirous of changing his boundaries so as to
include ground not embraced by the location as originally made and
recorded; or in case the original declaration of location was made
prior to the promulgation of these regulations, and the locator or his
assigns shall desire to conform the location and declaration hereto,
such locator or his assigns may file an amended declaration of location
in accordance with the provisions of the Act of Congress of July first,
nineteen hundred and two, and these regulations, with the mining
recorder of the province or district in which such claim is situate:
Provided, That such amended declaration of location does not interfere
at the date of its filing for record with the existing rights of any
person or persons, and no such amended location or the record thereof
shall preclude the locator or his assigns from proving any such title
as he or they may have held under the original location.
Sec. 15. Within sixty days after the expiration of
the period fixed by law for the annual performance of the labor or the
making of improvements upon a mining claim, the locator thereof, or
some person on his behalf cognizant of the facts, shall make and file
for record with the mining recorder of the province or district in
which the claim is situate an affidavit in substance as follows:
AFFIDAVIT OF ANNUAL ASSESSMENT WORK.
PHILIPPINE ISLANDS,
Province of ______________, District of ____________________, being
first duly sworn, deposes and says that he is a citizen of the United
States of America (or of the Philippine Islands, as the case may be),
and more than twenty-one years of age; that he resides in __________,
Province of district of ________________, P.I., and is personally
acquainted with the mining claim known as the _______________(lode or
placer) claim, situate in the barrio of _______________, Province of
______________, Island of _______________, P.I., the declaration of
location of which is recorded in the office of the mining recorder of
said province (or district), in book ____________ of Records of Mining
Claims, at page ______, that between the _______ day of ______, 19 ,
and the _____________ day of ___________, 19 ____, not less than
___________ dollars worth of labor was performed or improvements made
upon said claim, not including the work done prior to the date of
recording the same. Such work was done or improvements made by and at
the expense of ____________, the owner of said claim, for the purpose
of complying with the laws of the United States relating to annual
assessment work, and ______________ (here name the miners or other
persons who did the work) were the persons employed by said owner who
did such work or made such improvements, and that said work or
improvements consisted of and are described as follows, to wit:
_____________________(here describe the work done).
( Signature) ________________
Subscribed and sworn to before me this ____________ day of _______ , 19
_____.
_________________________________
(Signature of officer who administers oath.)
Such affidavit, when recorded, shall be prima facie evidence of the
performance of such labor or the making of such improvements, and shall
be received in evidence by all courts in the Philippine Islands, as
shall also the record thereof or a certified copy of the same.
Sec. 16. Actual expenditures and cost of mining
improvements by the claimant or his grantors, having a direct relation
to the development of the claim, shall be included in the estimate of
assessment work. The expenditures may be made from the surface, or in
running a tunnel, drifts, or crosscuts for the development of the
claim. Improvements of any other character, such as buildings,
machinery, or roadways, must be excluded from the estimate unless it is
clearly shown that they are associated with actual excavations, such as
cuts, tunnels, shafts, and so forth, are essential to the practical
development of and actually facilitate the extraction of mineral from
the claim.
Sec. 17. The public good requiring the speedy
enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in
accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of
procedure by the Com mission in the enactment of laws," passed
September twenty-sixth, nine teen hundred.
Sec. 18. This Act shall take effect on its passage.
ENACTED, February 7, 1903.
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