Show THE APEX LAW the law of the apex has proved more productive of expensive litigation than of economical mining in many of the more recently established and more progressive mining districts this statute has been made inoperative either by common agreement or by compromise between adjoining owners its repeal could not affect established equi ties under patents already granted but would render possible more certain property rights in large mining districts not as yet discovered where new and valuable claims will be located a hundred years from now the unit of disposition should be the claim preferably square limited on its four sides by vertical planes and of a size sufficient to allow the miner occupying two contiguous claims to follow the vein or lode to considerable depth even if its dip is only 45 degrees such definition of a mining claim is found practical in both mexico and british columbia and in the latter country the change from the apex law was effected without trouble or confusion the same knowledge or natural conditions that leads to the suggestion of a repeal of the law of the apex forces the further suggestion that discovery of ore in place can not be made universally a prerequisite to the location of a mining claim geologic study of ore deposits has furnished examples in a number of regions where the present law cannot be complied with although rich deposits exist underground and their extent can be more definitely surmised than in most places where ore is discovered at the surface to meet such actual conditions the law should provide for the acquisition of mineral land classified as such upon the basis of adequate geologic evidence anether ether actual outcrops are present or not from annual annual report director united states geological survey |