30 U.S.C. § 36 — Subdivisions of 10-acre tracts; maximum of placer locations; homestead claims of agricultural lands; sale of improvements

This section covers how mining claims relate to land subdivisions and homesteads. Legal 40-acre subdivisions of land may be split into 10-acre tracts. Two or more people or associations with adjoining (contiguous) claims — even claims smaller than 10 acres each — can file a joint entry together. No placer claim (other than vein or lode claims) located after July 9, 1870, can total more than 160 acres for any one person or association, and the claim's location must match the U.S. survey system. Nothing in this section can defeat or weaken a genuine homestead claim on agricultural land, and nothing in it lets anyone sell the improvements of a genuine settler to a purchaser without the settler's consent.