Also known as: assessment works · assessment
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
Annual labor or improvements that a claimant must perform on an unpatented mining claim to retain possession.
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Albert Allen holds an unpatented mining claim in a remote area. He cuts and sells timber from the claim without performing any other labor or improvements during the assessment year. The Bureau of Land Management cancels the claim for failure to complete assessment work.
Betty Baker owns an unpatented claim and builds an access road costing the statutory minimum. She records the work with the county recorder before the assessment deadline. The BLM accepts the filing and the claim remains valid.
Carl Clark submits receipts and an engineer affidavit showing drilling performed on his claim equals the required assessment amount. Opposing claimants argue the work was unnecessary. The agency credits the full value after reviewing the documentation.
Dana Diaz performs labor on her claim but neglects to file the annual assessment affidavit. A rival locator files a challenge. The BLM declares the claim abandoned for noncompliance with the filing rule.
Ed Evans pays the full assessment cost after his co-owner refuses to contribute. He sues for reimbursement of the other owner's share. The court awards judgment and a lien against the nonpaying interest.
Fay Foster sues a state agency that imposes extra assessment work beyond federal minimums. She argues the added burden conflicts with the Mining Law of 1872. The court holds the state rule preempted.
The claimant must perform annual labor or make improvements of the required value on the claim. Failure to complete this assessment work results in loss of the claim.
Supporting sources
…“pose no risk of harm to themselves or third parties.” Ante, at 27. This argument again echoes Lochner , which relied on its assessment that “we think that a law like the one before us involves neither the safety, the morals nor the welfare of the public, and that the interest of the public is not in the slightest degree…