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Title 30, Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-102

§38 Evidence of Possession and Work to Establish Right to Patent

Title 30 › CHAPTER 2 — MINERAL LANDS AND REGULATIONS IN GENERAL › § 38

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

When a person or group and the people who transferred the claim to them have held and worked a mining claim for at least the same time as the state or territory’s statute of limitations where the claim is located, proof of that possession and work is enough to get a patent under sections 21, 22 to 24, 26 to 28, 29, 30, 33 to 48, 50 to 52, 71 to 76 of this title and section 661 of title 43, if no one else has a competing claim. However, this does not cancel or weaken any lien that attached to the claim or its property before a patent was issued.

Full Legal Text

Title 30, §38

Mineral Lands and Mining, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

Where such person or association, they and their grantors, have held and worked their claims for a period equal to the time prescribed by the statute of limitations for mining claims of the State or Territory where the same may be situated, evidence of such possession and working of the claims for such period shall be sufficient to establish a right to a patent thereto under section 21, 22 to 24, 26 to 28, 29, 30, 33 to 48, 50 to 52, 71 to 76 of this title and section 661 of title 43, in the absence of any adverse claim; but nothing in such sections shall be deemed to impair any lien which may have attached in any way whatever to any mining claim or property thereto attached prior to the issuance of a patent.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

section 21, 22 to 24, 26 to 28, 29, 30, 33 to 48, 50 to 52, 71 to 76 of this title and section 661 of title 43, referred to in text, were in the original “this chapter”, meaning chapter 6 of title 32 of the Revised Statutes, consisting of R.S. §§ 2318 to 2352. Codification R.S. § 2332 derived from act July 9, 1870, ch. 235, § 13, 16 Stat. 217.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Submerged Lands ActProvisions of this section as not amended, modified or repealed by the Submerged Lands Act, see section 1303 of Title 43, Public Lands.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

30 U.S.C. § 38

Title 30, Mineral Lands and Mining

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102