Where the vein leaves the claim through both side lines, there are no extralateral rights and the vein may be mined only in the area contained within the vertical boundaries of the claim (see Claim C of Figure 1).
Two claims might be located along the strike of the same vein in such a manner as to produce diverging end lines as in Claims D and E of Figure 1. In this case a portion of the vein beneath the surface (F) belongs to neither claim and must be appropriated by staking claims the vertical boundaries of which will encompass the unappropriated segment.
Where veins of two different claims unite on the dip, the portion below the junction belongs to the senior claim; if the veins cross, rather than unite, the junction belongs to the senior claim.
An outcrop is not an apex in the case of bedded deposits that are tilted or outcrop on a canyon wall. Claims located on the outcrops of bedded deposits have no extralateral rights.
Where the vein is wider than patent, the extralateral rights belong to the senior claim. A claim located on the dip, though senior, loses the vein to a junior claim properly located on the apex. The latter issues have been the subject of numerous lawsuits, and there have been decisions favoring each side.
In Figure 1, Claims A, B, C, D and E were located along the apex of a vein dipping to the south in alphabetical order, “A” being the oldest claim. The portions of the vein belonging to each claim are shown by various cross-hatching.
FIG. 1
1–50 Riparian Rights: Although not a general rule, occasions have arisen when a mining claim adjoins a navigable body of water and the shoreline or mean high water mark becomes the boundary of the claim. In such instances it is proper to run such a boundary as a meander line and the field notes of the mineral survey should state that it is a meander line of the mean high water line and that the corners of such line are meander corners. The situation is well stated in Alaska United Gold Mining Co. et al. v. Cincinnati-Alaska Mining Co. et al., decided April 18, 1916, 45 L.D. 330:
“The rule as to meander lines is applicable to mining claims, and where in the course of an official patent survey of a mining claim abutting upon a navigable body of water a meander line has been run, which follows as nearly as practicable the shore line of the water, such shore line and not the meander line, must be taken as the boundary of the claim when patented according to the plat and field notes of the survey.”