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In Alaska, state mining claims may be up to 160 acres (0.65 km 2), and there is no distinction between lode or placer claims. The boundaries of the claim must follow the 4 cardinal directions, with an exception being adjustments for existing valid claims. "Claim jumping", which happens to this day, is a case where one person overstakes the ...
The process of patenting claims has been perhaps the most controversial part of the mining law. Because of a Congress-imposed moratorium, the federal government has not accepted any new applications for mining claim patents since October 1, 1994. [26] The 1872 law granted extra lateral rights to owners of lode claims. This gave the owners of ...
Placer mining is frequently used for precious metal deposits (particularly gold) and gemstones, both of which are often found in alluvial deposits—deposits of sand and gravel in modern or ancient stream beds, or occasionally glacial deposits. The metal or gemstones, having been moved by stream flow from an original source such as a vein, are ...
Today, the Comstock Lode is being explored by Comstock Mining Inc. [14] of Virginia City, Nevada, which has consolidated control of approximately 70% of Comstock mining claims. On September 30, 2012, Comstock Mining Inc. returned gold and silver production to the Comstock with its first pour of doré bullion [ 15 ] and continues surface mining ...
A stringer lode is one in which the rock is so permeated by small veinlets that rather than mining the veins, the entire mass of ore and the enveined country rock is mined. It is so named because of the irregular branching of the veins into many anastomosis stringers, so that the ore is not separable from the country rock.
A mining claim is the claim of the right to extract minerals from a tract of public land. In the United States, the practice began with the California gold rush of 1849. In the absence of organized government, the miners in each new mining camp made up their own rules, and to a large extent adopted Mexican mining law.
The first mining efforts were placer mining of stream gravels, and placer mining in the area has continued sporadically to this day. Robert Hatcher discovered gold and staked the first claim in the Willow Creek valley in September 1906. The first lode mill in the area started operating in 1908.
Mining has gradually moved away from the initial small prospectors, in line with the experience in all other major mineral fields, toward gradual consolidation of claims and tenure, an increase in tenure and mine size and efficiencies in operations resulting in smaller workforces.