Classification of Mineral Lands
In recent years there has been considerable development of the practice of classifying mineral lands in given areas for purposes of exploration and valuation, or for purposes of formulation and administration of government laws. This has been done both by private interests and by the government. These classifications take into account all of the geologic and economic factors ascertainable. The classes of mineral land designated vary with the mineral, the district, and the purpose for which the classification is made.
Common procedure for commercial exploration purposes is to divide the lands of a given territory into three groups—(1) lands which are definitely promising for mineral exploration, (2) lands of doubtful possibilities, and (3) lands in which the mineral possibilities are so slight that they may be excluded from practical consideration. Each of these classes may be subdivided for special purposes. Another commonly used classification is, (1) proved mineral lands, (2) probable mineral lands, usually adjacent to producing mines, (3) possible mineral lands, and (4) commercially unpromising mineral lands.
The classification of the public mineral lands by government agencies is fully discussed by George Otis Smith and others in a bulletin of the United States Geological Survey.[37] The purposes, methods, and results of this classification should be familiar to every explorer. Nowhere else is there available such a vast body of information of practical value. Quoting from this report:
A study of the land laws shows the absolute necessity of some form of segregation of the lands into classes as a prerequisite to their disposition. Agricultural entry may not be made on lands containing valuable minerals, nor coal entry on lands containing gold, silver, or copper; lands included in desert entries or selected under the Carey Act must be desert lands; enlarged-homestead lands must not be susceptible of successful irrigation; placer claims must not be taken for their timber value or their control of watercourses; and lands included in building-stone, petroleum, or salt placers must be more valuable for those minerals than for any other purpose. So through the whole scheme of American land laws runs the necessity for determining the use for which each tract is best fitted.
For this purpose the Geological Survey has made extensive classification of coal lands, oil and gas lands, phosphate lands, lands bearing potash and related salines, metalliferous mineral lands, miscellaneous non-metalliferous mineral lands, and water resources. The scope of the work may be indicated by the factors considered. For instance coal is investigated in relation to its character and heat-giving qualities (whence comes its value), quantity, thickness, depth, and other conditions that effect the cost of its extraction. Metalliferous mineral lands are considered in relation to general geology, country rock, intrusions and metamorphism, structure, outcrops and float of lodes, prospects and mines, samples, and history of the region.
Classifications of this kind have often proved useful to large holders of land as a basis for intelligent handling of problems of sale, taxation, and the granting of rights to explorers. Because of the lack of this elementary information, there has been in some quarters timidity about dealing with large holdings, for fear of parting with possible future mineral wealth,—with the result that such tracts are carried at large expense and practically removed from the field of exploration. To the same cause may be attributed some of the long delays on the part of the government in opening lands for mineral entry or in issuing patents on land grants.