§ 28. — Mining district regulations by miners: location, recordation, and amount of work; marking of location on ground; records; annual labor or improvements on claims pending issue of patent; coowner's succession in interest upon delinquency in contributing proportion of expenditures; tunnel as lode expenditure.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 30USC28]
TITLE 30--MINERAL LANDS AND MINING
CHAPTER 2--MINERAL LANDS AND REGULATIONS IN GENERAL
Sec. 28. Mining district regulations by miners: location,
recordation, and amount of work; marking of location on ground;
records; annual labor or improvements on claims pending issue of
patent; co-owner's succession in interest upon delinquency in
contributing proportion of expenditures; tunnel as lode
expenditure
The miners of each mining district may make regulations not in
conflict with the laws of the United States, or with the laws of the
State or Territory in which the district is situated, governing the
location, manner of recording, amount of work necessary to hold
possession of a mining claim, subject to the following requirements: The
location must be distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries
can be readily traced. All records of mining claims made after May 10,
1872, shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date of the
location, and such a description of the claim or claims located by
reference to some natural object or permanent monument as will identify
the claim. On each claim located after the 10th day of May 1872, that is
granted a waiver under section 28f of this title, and until a patent has
been issued therefor, not less than $100 worth of labor shall be
performed or improvements made during each year. On all claims located
prior to the 10th day of May 1872, $10 worth of labor shall be performed
or improvements made each year, for each one hundred feet in length
along the vein until a patent has been issued therefor; but where such
claims are held in common, such expenditure may be made upon any one
claim; and upon a failure to comply with these conditions, the claim or
mine upon which such failure occurred shall be open to relocation in the
same manner as if no location of the same had ever been made, provided
that the original locators, their heirs, assigns, or legal
representatives, have not resumed work upon the claim after failure and
before such location. Upon the failure of any one of several coowners to
contribute his proportion of the expenditures required hereby, the
coowners who have performed the labor or made the improvements may, at
the expiration of the year, give such delinquent co-owner personal
notice in writing or notice by publication in the newspaper published
nearest the claim, for at least once a week for ninety days, and if at
the expiration of ninety days after such notice in writing or by
publication such delinquent should fail or refuse to contribute his
proportion of the expenditure required by this section, his interest in
the claim shall become the property of his co-owners who have made the
required expenditures. The period within which the work required to be
done annually on all unpatented mineral claims located since May 10,
1872, including such claims in the Territory of Alaska, shall commence
at 12 o'clock meridian on the 1st day of September succeeding the date
of location of such claim.
Where a person or company has or may run a tunnel for the purposes
of developing a lode or lodes, owned by said person or company, the
money so expended in said tunnel shall be taken and considered as
expended on said lode or lodes, whether located prior to or since May
10, 1872; and such person or company shall not be required to perform
work on the surface of said lode or lodes in order to hold the same as
required by this section. On all such valid claims the annual period
ending December 31, 1921, shall continue to 12 o'clock meridian July 1,
1922.
(R.S. Sec. 2324; Feb. 11, 1875, ch. 41, 18 Stat. 315; Jan. 22, 1880, ch.
9, Sec. 2, 21 Stat. 61; Aug. 24, 1921, ch. 84, 42 Stat. 186; Pub. L. 85-
736, Sec. 1, Aug. 23, 1958, 72 Stat. 829; Pub. L. 103-66, title X,
Sec. 10105(b), Aug. 10, 1993, 107 Stat. 406.)
Codification
R.S. Sec. 2324 derived from act May 10, 1872, ch. 152, Sec. 5, 17
Stat. 92.
Amendments
1993--Pub. L. 103-66 inserted ``that is granted a waiver under
section 28f of this title,'' after ``On each claim located after the
10th day of May 1872,''.
1958--Pub. L. 85-736 changed period for doing annual assessment work
on unpatented mineral claims, substituting ``1st day of September'' for
``1st day of July''.
Admission of Alaska as State
Admission of Alaska into the Union was accomplished Jan. 3, 1959, on
issuance of Proc. No. 3269, Jan. 3, 1959, 24 F.R. 81, 73 Stat. c16, as
required by sections 1 and 8(c) of Pub. L. 85-508, July 7, 1958, 72
Stat. 339, set out as notes preceding section 21 of Title 48,
Territories and Insular Possessions.
Assessment Work Years, 1957-58 and 1958-59
Section 2 of Pub. L. 85-736 provided that the period commencing in
1957 for the performance of annual assessment work under this section
shall end at 12 o'clock meridian on the 1st day of July 1958, and the
period commencing in 1958 for the performance of such annual assessment
work shall commence at 12 o'clock meridian on the 1st day of July 1958,
and shall continue to 12 o'clock meridian on Sept. 1, 1959.
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in sections 24, 28-1, 28b, 29, 33, 37,
38, 39, 40, 42, 46, 47, 48, 49, 102, 541b of this title; title 16
section 460mm-1; title 25 section 640d-10; title 43 sections 1712, 1714,
1732; title 50 App. section 565.
