30 U.S.C. § 34 — Description of vein claims on surveyed and unsurveyed lands; monuments on ground to govern conflicting calls

submitted 122 years ago by Congress to r/title-30-MINERAL-LANDS-AND-MINING · 229 words · no verdicts yet

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Mining claim boundaries on surveyed land must reference the public survey lines, though they don't have to match them exactly. When patents and the physical monuments on the ground conflict, the monuments on the ground always control which land is actually patented.

This section covers how mining claim descriptions relate to government land surveys. On surveyed land, a claim's description must reference the public survey lines, though it does not have to match them exactly. On unsurveyed land where a patent has already issued, the Director of the Bureau of Land Management must adjust any later public survey to fit the boundaries of that patented claim, without changing the claim's true location as it was already established on the ground. For mineral lands with a patent, only the land actually bounded by the monuments marked and set on the ground during the official survey — the survey the patent is based on — counts as patented. The Director must follow this same rule when doing later patent surveys, whether on surveyed or unsurveyed land. The physical monuments on the ground are always the highest authority on what land is patented. If the monuments conflict with the written descriptions in the patent, the monuments control, and any wrong or inconsistent wording in the patent description must give way to them.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

The description of vein or lode claims upon surveyed lands shall designate the location of the claims with reference to the lines of the public survey, but need not conform therewith; but where patents have been or shall be issued for claims upon unsurveyed lands, the Director of the Bureau of Land Management in extending the public survey, shall adjust the same to the boundaries of said patented claims so as in no case to interfere with or change the true location of such claims as they are officially established upon the ground. Where patents have issued for mineral lands, those lands only shall be segregated and shall be deemed to be patented which are bounded by the lines actually marked, defined, and established upon the ground by the monuments of the official survey upon which the patent grant is based, and the Director of the Bureau of Land Management in executing subsequent patent surveys, whether upon surveyed or unsurveyed lands, shall be governed accordingly. The said monuments shall at all times constitute the highest authority as to what land is patented, and in case of any conflict between the said monuments of such patented claims and the descriptions of said claims in the patents issued therefor the monuments on the ground shall govern, and erroneous or inconsistent descriptions or calls in the patent descriptions shall give way thereto.

Source credit: (R.S. § 2327; Apr. 28, 1904, ch. 1796, 33 Stat. 545; Mar. 3, 1925, ch. 462, 43 Stat. 1144; 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, § 403, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7876, 60 Stat. 1100.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1904Enacted · Act of Apr. 28, 1904, ch. 1796 · 33 Stat. 545
1925Amended · Act of Mar. 3, 1925, ch. 462 · 43 Stat. 1144

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