Show what constitutes assessment work written wn tn alen for the tk mining M review R ew by lr H 1 1 W W macfarren I 1 the annual assessment or representation work the performance of the worth of work each calendar year required by law upon mining claims as a requisite to their possession is one of the fundamental principles of mining law originated by the miner and its advisability practically notwithstanding all the th e ebb and flow of criticisms and proposed chanies changes of the mining laws the nature of this work is best expressed in saying that it shall develop or directly help in the development of the mineral contents of the ground and facilitate its extraction assessment work and work for patent purposes has been held to be similar as in fact they should be but there is a difference between them in that a liberal construction st has been placed upon what is assessment ses work while the lines have been drawn tighter by the land department in what may constitute patent work what is or is not assessment work must be interpreted from the decisions of the courts couris when such work has been called into question assessment work excavations made in attempting to open up and extract mineral I 1 is the best kind of assessment work excavations of some size such as cuts and trenches made in prospecting are good but when these hese t are reduced in size to the holes dug by the pros to get dirt to pan as he follows the float or colors up a hillside to the ledge they are hardly applicable sampling and testing rock by panning has not been ac cee pied apparently works of a permanent nature that leave some trace of themselves and especially that tend to improve the claim are required however there is no doubt that a reasonable amount of time spent in preliminary prospecting may count as assessment work when done in good faith and immediately followed by improvements of a permanent nature buildings and ore bins it has been said that to make a building erected on a mining claim an improvement under the law ot of annual labor it must have been placed ed there for the purpose of benefiting the claim and for its improvement an ore house built on the claim in question for the benefit of an adjoining claim was rejected A dwelling house erected feet from the claim and subsequently removed was not allowed the phe applicability of a building for assessment work depends upon how essential it is to the development of the claim and the bearing its proportion of the total work reported may have when the good faith of the claim owner is questioned wagon roads and trails wagon roads and trails are applicable where it is shown that they are actually needed for the working of the claims they may be in the c 6 ose vicinity of the claims as well as on them work done upon a mining claim which is not of a mining character and made for other purposes is declined the taking of material to a claim or the felling of timber not used cannot be considered extracting ore for shipping has been held to be satisfactory expenditure of time and money in traveling about regarding matters connected with a mining claim or in reaching it is not applicable employment of a watchman the wages paid or allowed a watchman whose services are necessary to keep the tunnels and drifts open buildings in repair and from being burnt down machinery from ruin ore from being stolen en etc is allowable where it is desired to keep the property in repair to resume operations 0 P orations erat ions later it has been held that for the expenditure for a watchman to count as assessment work it must be made in good faith and reasonably be of present use and benefit to the property as a mine by guarding valuable improvements made thereon against deterioration 6 teri oration oratio n or destruction when such improvements prove ments may reasonably be said to be of value to the property as a mine there may be cases where the work is temporarily suspended and structures which will be required when work is resumed are likely to be lost if not cared for and where such work is intended to be resumed in a reasonable time in which money expended to preserve the structures will be on the same basis bams as money eap exp expended ended to create anew but a watchman looking after a naked claim or there to warn away prospectors pec tors or when it cannot be shown that a watchman is required will not be allowed where credit was given the supreme court of oregon in 1908 in the gase case of fredericks vs klauser 96 pac passed upon an interesting case in which various kinds of items were presented it was sought to show that had been expended to benefit four claims resulting in thirty three feet of tunnel work upon one of the claims the sum of 37 paid one party for fourteen days labor was allowed 2395 paid another for eight days labor A bill of for timber delivered on the ground out of which three sets of of five feet each were used the balance remaining on the ground or were hauled away was rejected subject to the value of the timber actually used two bills one for 65 for a pair of horses the other for for hauling goods and material to tb the mine was refused on the principle that whatever assistance si these items gave in developing the ground could only be properly arrived at in some other way item of mainly for rails was declined as not being applicable in its entirety since only a part was actually placed in the mine the balance being hauled away to be returned later bill of 2240 for for tools was rejected as they did not become a part of the mining claim and the only allowance that could be made for them was a reasonable compensation for their used the amounts of and 2335 for household utensils and provisions were refused as not being the proper manner of making the allowance for board A bill for for labor and services as mana manager 0 er for seven months was rejected as the manager testified that the labor he performed only required eighteen to twenty five days there was no machinery or other fixtures of importance at the mine the preservation of which necessitated a watchman when development had ceased the court principally upon the testimony of the manager that one party in fourteen days drove the tunnel twenty four feet seven inches and that another party assisted to some extent by the witness extended tho tunnel eight feet five inches in eight days concluded that the valuation of 4 per foot or for the whole thirty three feet run as set by parties who had made a relocation of the claims based on the failure to do the annual labor for the previous year was more acceptable that the valuation of 8 per foot by the parties who had the work performed the court held that the items of 37 and 2395 for fourteen and eight days labor respectively ively plus an allowance of 85 cents per day for board or 1870 making a total of which deducted from left the amount that could be allowed for labor performed by the manager and for his board during the time of performance and the de livered at the mine cost of rails timber and other mining supplies actually used held that the expenditure of satisfied the requirement of annual expenditure on y on the claim upon which the work had been performed and that the other claims were open to location and had been forfeited by the original owners when relocated while 4 per foot appears to be a low valuation it is easily apparent that not worth of actual improvements was made or sufficient to hold more than one claim the principles enunciated by the court seem just and they will undoubtedly be often referred to in future cases the miner who is actu actually aly trying to develop the mineral resources of his claims is not likely to have his work questioned whether it consists in life size excavations on oil or about the veins in digging ditches to bring water upon his claim in breaking a trail to reach it or in building a cabin to live in while working upon the claims it is the man who is not trying to develop his claim but is relying on the supposed tech of law or on the well known aversion to trying to prove that a man has not done his annual labor that occasionally gets his dues H W macfarren |