Utah Consol. Mining Co. v. Utah Apex Mining Co.

277 F. 41, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 1982
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided November 14, 1921·No. Nos. 5878-5881·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

CARLAND, Circuit Judge.

These cases were brought by appellant against appellee for the purpose of quieting the title to certain ore bodies found in the Yampa limestone located in the Bingham mining district, Utah, and for injunction and accounting. Appellant claims to be the owner of these ore bodies by virtue of extralateral rights resulting from its ownership of certain mining claims known as Yampa Extension Northeast, Yampa, Mercer and Mercer No. 2, Keepapitchinin, and Rattlesnake. As different segments of the vein or lode upon which these claims were located are included in the claims mentioned, a case was brought upon each claim. The four cases were by stipulation consolidated for trial and tried as one case. They have been heard ■here as one case, and will be so treated in this opinion. The appellee in its answer alleged that it was the owner of mining claims located in the Bingham mining district, Utah, known as the Nellie Bly, York, Atlantic, Petro, Minnie, and Andy No. 2, and that by virtue of said ownership, including extralateral rights, it was the owner of the ore bodies in controversy. Appellee, however, did not pray for any affirmative relief. The trial court decided that appellant had not by a preponderance of the evidence sustained its contention, that the Yampa limestone was a broad lode, but did hold that the flat sheet of ore lying between the quartzite below and the limestone above was the vein which had its outcrop within the boundaries of the mining claims of the appellant and gave to the appellant extralateral rights beneath the surface of the mining claims of appellee, but that the ore bodies in dispute were not a part of that vein. Judgment was therefore entered for the appellee. The following is a statement made by the trial court, with which we agree, as to what the evidence showed in regard to the geological condition of the country where the ore bodies in dispute are located:

“Geologically the country involved in this litigation consists of an underlying quartzite bed or stratum of unknown extent and thickness. Upon this quartzi’te there is a limestone bed, called the Highland Boy limestone, of an average thickness of about 250 feet, by varying in thickness from about 100 to 400 feet. Above the Highland Boy limestone there is a bed of quartzite having an average thickness, of about 250 feet, and above this quartzite bed there is another limestone bed, called the Tampa limestone, with an average thickness of about 200 feet, but varying in thickness from a few feet at or near the surface to 400 or 500 feet at depth in the neighborhood of the steepening of the dip of the limestone. Above the Tampa limestone there is a quartzite stratum having a thickness of about 700 feet, and above this stratum of quartzite, a limestone bed, called the Parnell, of about 30 feet in thickness. Upon the Parnell limestone rests a quartzite bed containing within it here and there thin lenses of limestone. This bed of quartzite has a thickness of about 280 feet. Above this quartzite there is a thin bed of limestone called the' Petro, and above the Petro an indefinite thickness of quartzite in which are found here and there thin lenses of limestone.
[43] '“‘The limestone and quartzite beds above mentioned are sedimentary róeles, sind, as laid down in the bottom of the ocean, were originally level. Later una in the mountain making of this region these sedimentary beds were uplifted and more or less tilted and bent so that now they have a dip norther! j at the surface and for some considerable distance below the surface of about, 30 degrees, and an easterly and westerly strike across the country.
‘•Subsequent to the mountain building' which resulted in the tilting of these sedimentary beds of limestone and quartzite there was an intrusion of porphyry—an igneous rock coming up from the depths, apparently from the south and east—which cut through, absorbed, or threw aside portions of the sedimentary beds of limestone and quartzite lying above. After this intrusion of porphyry the ores and mineral contained in the mining properties of the parties to this action were deposited.”

Appellant’s mining claims are located on the Yampa limestone as above described. Appellant maintains:

(1) That the Yampa limestone within its claims between quartzite boundaries, situated as it is in the Bingham district, constitutes in the eyes of the miner and under a proper construction of the mining law a single lode or vein of metal bearing rock.

(2) That the ore bodies mined by the appellee and in controversy are so situated in the ground, so related to one another and to the vein which is admitted in the answer to belong to the appellant, that they cannot be separated from it, and are therefore part of it.

(3) That the Yampa vein or lode has been developed continuously in ore from the surface to the ore bodies in controversy.

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Utah Consol. Mining Co. v. Utah Apex Mining Co., 277 F. 41, 1921 U.S. App. LEXIS 1982 (8th Cir. 1921).

277 F. 41 (Utah Consol. Mining Co. v. Utah Apex Mining Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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