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Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets
Mining Engineering and Mining Law by James D Hague (PH 2-14) (1904) (11 pages)
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Page: of 11
lodes, of variable courses, strikes and dips,
each having an independent apex of its own?
If the main fissure, vein or lode, whose unity,
identity and continuity have already been established and confirmed by mineral patent, can
thus be outlawed in favor of the pre-existing
structure-planes, how shall the courts then determine the lawful relations of owners, claiming extralateral rights under a network, a
labyrinth or a maze, of apexes?
In the recent instance referred to, on which
the case here supposed is based, the structureplanes of the country rock are countless in
number, infinitely varied in extent, both very
small and immeasurably large, generally following more or less closely, in course and dip,
the rhombic angles and angular planes of
rhomboidal bodies. They strike and dip in all
directions possible within the range of these
structural angles, meeting and intersecting in
horizontal and vertical sections, like lines of
rhombic lattice or the interstitial planes within
a pile of rhombohedral bricks. The surface
outcrops, or alleged apexes, of these structural planes may be found traversing the patented mining claims in all possible directions.
If continuous for sufficient length, they may
wholly cross a claim, from side to side, conyerting side-lines into end-lines, at least, for
that particular apparent outcrop, apex, structure-plane or vein, if a structure-plane may
lawfully be the vein.
Deep down in the mine, the fissure, with its
filling of rich ore, may have been formed on
or along one or more of these pre-existing
structure-planes, some of which may appear
at the surface with an outcrop, or an alleged
apex, which is found, not within, but outside
of the exterior surface boundaries of the mining claim for which, with the vein or lode contained therein, the mineral patent has been
issued. Such an outcrop, or alleged apex, if
discovered within the boundaries of a neighboring patent, may thus be claimed by the
neighboring owner as the true apex of the rich
ore-vein known to occur in depth, as above indicated, the full possession and enjoyment of
which he may claim as his own, by virtue of
his extralateral right to follow to its entire
depth—unlimited and far-reaching as the public domain—all veins, the tops or apexes of
which are found within his boundaries.
If such a claim to the deep ore-vein in question could be maintained as lawful, it might
dispossess the real owner of the vein in depth,
destroy the foundation of his enterprise and
industry, rob him of all the value of the property, in developing which he may have spent
years of time and millions of dollars—to give
it to an undermining neighbor, intruding by an
alleged extralateral right, through an unsuspected loop-hole, into the premises of the original patentee, to whom the United States, years
before, had already issued a patent, granting
the vein or lode, the traceable outcrop of
which, all within the surface boundaries of the
patented claim, had long before been judicially declared to be the “top or apex” of the
lode in question.
Thus interpreted, the ‘Law of the Apex,’ as
Dr. Raymond has aptly called it, would be a
severely strict application of the Scriptural
law, “To him that hath (the apex) shall more
be given; but from him that hath not (the
apex), shall be taken away even that which he
hath.”
“What is the top or apex of a vein or lode?”
is a question of vital importance, which the
mining engineer is sometimes called upon to
answer for the instruction of the lawyers and
the enlightenment of the courts. The extralateral title of a lode-claim is controlled by
the possession of the “top or apex,” concerning which phrase Dr. Raymond says that these
terms appeared for the first time in the Act
of 1872, They were not miner’s terms, and
were probably used instead of the word ‘outcrop,’ in order to cover ‘blind lodes,’ which do
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