MINERAL CLAIMS CIRCULAR No. 233 PLACER-MINING CLAIMS-AFFIDAVITS OF IMPROVEMENTS DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices. SIRS: Where placer-mining claims are applied for by legal subdivisions and proofs of improvements are furnished in accordance with paragraphs 25 and 60, Mining Regulations, you will require the applicant to furnish the affidavits of improvements in duplicate, one copy to be forwarded by you immediately to the chief of field division, in order that he may have the information necessary to expedite an investigation of the claim. If preferred, the applicant may furnish copies of the original affidavits, instead of duplicates. Very respectfully, S. V. PROUDFIT, [Reported. 44 L. D. 46] VALIDATED PLACER LOCATIONS ON PHOSPHATE LANDS--PROOFS AND NOTICE-ACT OF JANUARY 11, 1915 (38 STAT. L. 792) DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE. Washington, March 31, 1915. Registers and Receivers, United States Land Offices. SIRS: Your attention is directed to the act of Congress approved January 11, 1915 (38 Stat. L. 792), entitled "An act validating locations of deposits of phosphate rock heretofore made in good faith under the placer-mining laws of the United States." The act applies only to placer-mining locations made on lands containing deposit of phosphate rock. It prescribes that phosphate placer locations made in good faith prior to the passage of the act, and prior to the withdrawal of such lands from location, upon which assessment work has been annually performed, shall be valid and may be perfected under the placer-mining laws, except as to lands included in an adverse or conflicting lode location. It authorizes the issuance of patents for such locations, where the provisions of the mining laws in other respects have been complied with. In addition to the usual proofs claimants, under all pending and future applications based on such validated locations, must submit 803 evidence showing that the assessment work has been annually performed up to and including the year preceding that in which the entry certificate is issued. Such proof may be made by filing the original or authenticated copies of the proofs of annual labor of record in the local recording office, provided such proofs are definite and specific. Where such evidence is not available, a sufficient corroborated affidavit, describing the nature and giving the approximate cost and reasonable value of the work done each year upon or for the benefit of each claim included in the application for patent, will be accepted. Similar proof must be furnished in support of all pending cases, where the entry certificates are outstanding, before such entries will be approved for patent, all else being regular. The act does not apply to lands included in an adverse or conflicting lode location, unless such adverse or conflicting claim is abandoned. The usual statutory notice of the application must have been or will be given in all cases. Section 2325, Revised Statutes, provides that if no adverse claim is filed during the 60 days of publication "it shall be assumed that the applicant is entitled to a patent and that no adverse claim exists." *** Where proper statutory notice has been given and no adverse claim or protest has been filed, it will be conclusively assumed, for patent purposes, that no adverse or conflicting lode location exists; and that if any such once existed, it has been abandoned. No new notice, if the notice already given be found regular and sufficient, will be required in support of any pending entry or application. Very respectfully, CLAY TALLMAN, Commissioner. Approved. ANDRIEUS A. JONES, First Assistant Secretary. Reported, 44 L. D. 195] CIRCULAR NO. 425 INSTRUCTIONS UNDER ACT OF JANUARY 11, 1915 (38 STAT. L. 792), PROVIDING FOR THE PURCHASE AND DISPOSAL OF CERTAIN LANDS CONTAINING THE MINERALS KAOLIN, KAOLINITE, FULLER'S EARTH, CHINA CLAY, AND BALL CLAY, IN TRIPP COUNTY, FORMERLY A PART OF THE ROSEBUD INDIAN RESERVATION, IN SOUTH DAKOTA REGISTER AND RECEIVER, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, United States Land Office, Gregory, S. Dak. SIRS: 1. The act approved January 11, 1915 (38 Stat. L. 792), provides that all lands containing the minerals kaolin, kaolinite, fuller's earth, china clay, and ball clay, in Tripp County, in what was formerly within the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, as have heretofore been opened to settlement and entry under acts of Congress which did not authorize the disposal of such mineral lands, shall be open to exploration and purchase and be disposed of under the general provisions of the mining laws of the United States, and the proceeds arising therefrom shall be deposited in the Treasury for the same purpose for which the proceeds arising from the disposal of other lands within the reservation in which such mineral-bearing lands are located were deposited. 2. The territory referred to in said act is that portion of the former Rosebud Indian Reservation in Tripp County, S. Dak.. opened to settlement and entry by the act of March 2, 1907, (34 Stat. 1230). No mineral locations or entries may be made in said area except for lands containing the minerals described in said act of January 11, 1915. 3. Applications for patents for lands described in said act of January 11, 1915, must contain, in addition to the matter required by paragraph 60 of the mining regulations, approved March 29, 1909 (37 L. D. 769), full and explicit data showing clearly that the lands sought to be patented thereunder are of the character contemplated by said act. 4. By the first proviso to said act of January 11, 1915, it is provided that the same person, association, or corporation shall not locate or enter more than one claim, not exceeding 160 acres in area, hereunder." (a) Under this clause and the preceding part of the act to which it relates, which provides that the lands containing the designated mineral deposits "shall be open to exploration and purchase and be disposed of under the general provisions of the mining laws of the United States," no location or entry of a claim under said act of January 11, 1915, by a single natural person or corporation can exceed 20 acres in area and in the case of an association no location or entry can exceed 20 acres for each individual participating therein; that is, a location by two persons can not exceed 40 acres, one by three persons can not exceed 60 acres, and one by eight persons can not exceed 160 acres. (b) Rights obtained by location under the mining laws are assignable, and the assignee may make the entry in his own name; so, under this act a person, association, or corporation holding as assignee may make entry in his, their, or its name: Provided, such person, association, or corporation has not held under said act of January 11, 1915. at any time, either as locator or entryman, any other lands; his, their, or its right is exhausted by having held under said act any particular tract, either as locator or entryman, either as an individual or as a member of an association or corporation. It follows, therefore, that no application for patent or entry, made under said act, shall embrace more than one single location. (e) In order that the conditions imposed by said first proviso may duly appear, the application for patent must contain or be accompanied by a specific statement, under oath, by each person whose name appears therein that he never has, either as an individual or as a member of an association or corporation, located, held, or entered any other lands under the provisions of said act of January 11, 1915. Where the application is by an association or corporation, it must, in like form as above provided, show that each person forming the association or holding stock in the corporation is qualified to make entry in his own right and that he is not a member of any other association or a stockholder in any other corporation which has located a claim or filed an application for other lands under the provi sions of said act of January 11, 1915. 5. Said act of January 11, 1915, contains the further proviso" that none of the lands or mineral deposits, the disposal of which is herein provided for, shall be disposed of at less price than that fixed by the applicable mining or coal-land laws, and in no instance at less than their appraised value, to be determined by the Secretary of the Interior." As soon as the register and receiver shall have filed and acted upon the mineral application for patent, and issued notice of allowance thereof they will forward to the chief of field division a duplicate of the sworn statement filed with said application for patent, which duplicate must be furnished by the mineral applicant, and, among other things, fully and accurately describe the land applied for and contain the other data herein prescribed. In the letter transmitting said duplicate sworn statement the local officers will advise the chief of field division as to the land for which the application for patent has been allowed, and the status of such land as shown by their records. Upon the receipt of these papers the chief of field division will docket the case and will promptly make, or cause to be made by a competent special agent, a personal examination of the land as to which the application for patent has been allowed and appraise said land for the purpose of determining the price at which the same shall be sold, which, however, must, in no event, be less than $5 per acre, or fraction of an acre. The schedule of appraisement must be prepared in duplicate, and fully describe, by legal subdivisions, each 10-acre tract, examined and valued, be signed by the appraiser and be approved by the chief of field division; and, on being so completed, (which must be prior to the expiration of the 60-day period of publication of notice of application for patent), they must be at once transmitted to the register and receiver, who will immediately send, by registered mail, one copy of the schedule of appraisement to the record address of the applicant for patent. When the appraisement is completed, the register and receiver will note the price on their records, and thereafter the land will be sold. at such price only, under the provisions of said act of January 11, 1915, in the absence of instructions to the contrary by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. If appraisement be not made and returned prior to the expiration of the period of newspaper publication and within 30 days thereafter, the applicant may, if duly qualified, and in the absence of other objections, purchase the land applied for at the minimum price, viz, $5 for each acre and $5 for each fractional part of an acre. 6. As to matters not covered by these regulations, you will, in general, be governed in the administration of said act of January 11, 1915, by the provisions of the United States mining laws and, so far as applicable, the regulations thereunder of March 29, 1909, and the various amendments thereof. Very respectfully, Approved. CLAY TALLMAN, Commissioner. A. A. JONES, First Assistant Secretary. |