UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO LIBRARIES MARCH 1930 MINING STATUTES OF NEW MEXICO Article II MINES. I Location-annual labor-abandonment-Sections 3445 to 3462. III 3445 3446 3447 3448 3449 3450 3451 3452 Id. 3453 3454 3455 3456 Location-marking-notice-recording. Id.-recording-fees. Location-discovery shaft. Id.-marking boundaries. Relocation-discovery shaft. Amended location notice. Removing location notice or monument-penalty. Annual labor-lien holder may perform. Id.-obstruction. Assessment work on claim in litigation-how done. §3445. LOCATION-MARKING-NOTICE-RECORDING. SECTION 1. Any person or persons desiring to locate a mining claim upon a vein or lode of quartz or other rock in place bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper or other valuable deposit, must distinctly mark the location on the ground so that its boundaries may be readily traced, and post in some conspicuous place on such location, a notice in writing stating thereon the name or names of the locator or locators, his or their intention to locate the mining claim, giving a description thereof by reference to some natural object or permanent monument as will identify the claims; and also within three months after posting such notice, cause to be recorded a copy thereof in the office of the clerk of the county in which the notice is posted. And provided, no other record of such notice shall be necessary. SEC. 2. In order to carry out the intent of the preceding section, it is hereby made the duty of the county clerk of the several counties of this State, and they are hereby required to provide at the expense of their respective counties such book or books as may be necessary and suitable in which to enter the record herein before provided for. The fees for recording such notices shall be ten cents for every one hundred words. §3447. LOCATION-DISCOVERY SHAFT. SEC. 3. That the locator or locators of any mining claim, located after this act shall take effect, shall, within ninety days from the date of taking possession of the same, sink a discovery shaft upon such claim, to a depth of at least ten feet from the lowest part of the rim of such shaft at the surface, exposing mineral in place, or shall drive a tunnel, adit, or open cut upon such claim, to at least ten feet below the surface, exposing mineral in place. §3448. Id.-MARKING BOUNDARIES. SEC. 4. The surface boundaries of mining claims hereafter located shall be marked by four substantial posts or monuments, one at each corner of such claim, so as to distinctly mark the claim on the ground, so that its boundaries can be readily traced, and shall otherwise conform to section 3445. §3449. RELOCATION-DISCOVERY SHAFT. SEC. 5. The relocation of any mining ground, which is subject to relocation, shall be made in the same way as an original location is required by law to be made, except the relocator may either sink a new shaft upon the ground relocated to the depth of at least ten feet from the lowest part of the rim of such shaft at the surface, exposing mineral in place, or drive a new tunnel, adit, or open cut upon such ground, at least ten feet below the surface, exposing mineral in place, or the relocator may sink the original discovery shaft ten feet deeper than it is at the time of relocation, or drive the original tunnel, adit, or open cut upon such claim, ten feet further. §3450. AMENDED LOCATION NOTICE. SEC. 6. If at any time the owner of any mining claim heretofore or hereafter located, or his assigns, shall apprehend that the original notice of location is defective, erroneous or the requirement of law has not been complied with before filing; or shall be desirous of changing his surface boundaries or to take in any part of an overlapping claim which has been abandoned, such owner may file in the office where notices of location are by law required to be filed, an amended or additional notice of location, subject to the provisions of this article. Provided, That such additional or amended notice of location does not interfere with the existing rights of others at the time of filing such notice; and no such amended or additional location, or record thereof, shall preclude the claimant or his assigns from proving any such title as he or they may have held under the previous location §3451. REMOVING LOCATION NOTICE OR MONUMENT-PENALTY. SEC. 7. Any person who shall take down, remove, alter or destroy any stake, post, monument or notice of location upon any mining claim without the consent of the owner or owners thereof, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment. §3452. Id. SEC. 8. Any person or persons, or the manager, officer, agent or employe of any person, firm, corporation or association, who shall in any manner alter, deface or change the location notice of any mining claim in this State, located under the laws of the United States and of this State, or any local regulations in force in the district wherein such claim is situated, thereby in any manner affecting the rights of any person, firm or corporation, to such claim or location, or the land covered thereby, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof before any court of competent jurisdiction, shall be fined in a sum not less than one hundred dollars, nor more than five hundred dollars, or imprisonment in the county jail for not less than sixty days, nor more than one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court trying the case. Nothing herein contained shall affect the rights of such locator or locators, and his or their assigns, to correct errors in such notice and file amended location notices as provided in section 3450, and the laws of the United States: Provided, Such change shall not affect or change the date of such location notice, or affect the rights of any other person. §3453. ANNUAL LABOR-LIEN HOLDER MAY PERFORM. SEC. 9. When the owner or owners of any mining claim or claims now located or which may hereafter be located, upon which there shall exist any mortgage, miner's or mechanic's lien, or other encumbrance of any kind which may be hereafter made or incurred, shall refuse, neglect or fail, up to the first day of December of any year, to perform thereon the annual labor or make thereon the annual expenditure required by law to be made in order to prevent the same from becoming open to relocation, in such case the holder or owner of such mortgage, lien or encumbrance, may, upon the first day of December of such year or any time thereafter, before any such mining claim or claims shall have been relocated, enter with his or their workmen and employes upon the same and perform, or cause to be performed, the one hundred dollars' worth of labor or make the one hundred dollars' worth of improvements upon such claim or claims as by law required to be done or made each year in order to prevent such claim or claims from becoming open to relocation; that such work shall be done and improvements made in a workmanlike manner; that for the purpose of performing or causing to be performed such labor and improvements, the holder or holders of such mortgage, miner's or mechanic's lien, or other encumbrance, shall be considered the agent or agents of the owner or owners of such mining claim or claims; that the owner or owners of such mining claim or claims, or any other person or persons, shall not in any manner prevent, obstruct, hinder or delay the performance of any labor or the making of such improvements and may be restrained from so doing by injunction; that upon the completion of the one hundred dollars' worth of labor or improvements by the holder or holders of any mortgage, miner's or mechanic's lien or other encumbrance as aforesaid, upon any mining claim, as herein provided, all sum or sums of money expended by him or them shall be and become a lien upon the said mining claim or claims and from the date of the completion of the same, draw the same rate of interest as the principal sum of such mortgage, miner's or mechanic's lien, or other encumbrance, and may be foreclosed according to law. §3454. Id.-OBSTRUCTING. SEC. 10. Any person or persons who shall prevent, obstruct, hinder or delay the performance of the labor or the making of the improvements mentioned in the last preceding section, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction, shall |