§ 3843.1 - Possessory right of tunnel proprietor.

The effect of R.S. 2323 (30 U.S.C. 27), is to give the proprietors of a mining tunnel run in good faith the possessory right to 1,500 feet of any blind lodes cut, discovered, or intersected by such tunnel, which were not previously known to exist within 3,000 feet from the face or point of commencement of such tunnel, and to prohibit other parties, after the commencement of the tunnel, from prospecting for and making locations of lodes on the line thereof and within said distance of 3,000 feet, unless such lodes appear upon the surface or were previously known to exist. The term “face,” as used in said sections, is contrued and held to mean the first working face formed in the tunnel, and to signify the point at which the tunnel actually enters cover; it being from this point that the 3,000 feet are to be counted upon which prospecting is prohibited as aforesaid. R.S. 2323 provides: “Failure to prosecute the work on the tunnel for six months shall be considered as an abandonment of the right to all undiscovered veins on the line of such tunnel.”