T
Tuolumne
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There is no moratorium on forming mining districts in California or any other State. The right for claim owners to form a mining district is granted by federal law, states couldn't pass a law prohibiting that right.
Check out the supremacy clause Article VI clause 2 of the United States Constitution to understand why states can't overrule federal law. It's important to understand the different powers the Federal and State governments have if you are going to understand how mining districts fit into the regulatory scheme.
Once you get a good grounding there look over the Mining Act of 1872. That is where you will find the authority for claim owners to form their own mining districts - not in any State laws.
I haven't seen anyone here or anywhere else suggest that any law prohibits forming a mining district except yourself. California and most other public land States specifically recognize mining districts. Have you finally realized that the mining law grants the right to form a mining district but doesn't grant any right to reform a mining district?
There are State laws that prohibit the reforming of mining districts. Perhaps you heard that fact somewhere and misunderstood?
Even when the law doesn't specifically prohibit the reforming of mining districts often the bylaws of retired districts can not be included in a current district. Prejudice and exclusionary practices were common in the bylaws of the old mining districts. That stuff don't fly any more socially or legally.
Heavy Pans
Local rules and regulations bridged the time from 1850 to 1866 when the first national policy
regarding mining lands became a statute (Hershiser, 1913, p. 143). This law, known as the
General Mining Act of 1866, contained a provision that stated local rules should be recognized
and confirmed (Lindley, 1897, p. 62). According to Lindley (1897, p. 80), the Mining Act of
1872, which, with additions and amendments, is the law under which federal mining rights are
now acquired, contained a similar provision concerning mining-district regulations by miners
that stated:
Subject to the limitations enumerated in the act the miners of each mining district may
make regulations not in conflict with the laws of the United States, or with the laws of the
state or territory in which the district is situated . . .
Thus the mining district concept, which grew from need in the absence of legislation, became
legitimate through legislation. This same legislation, however, essentially eliminated any further
need for organized mining districts. Lindley in 1897 (p. 80) stated:
. . . generally in California the district organizations are a thing of the past . . . . They have
performed in the scheme of evolution, and have, for the most part, disappeared, to be
replaced by higher forms of legislation.
3923. This chapter does not in any manner affect or abolish any mining district or the rules and regulations thereof within the state.
3924. Whenever any mining district in this state, organized or created under the laws of the United States, is dissolved, the officers or custodians of the records of the mining district shall deposit with the county recorder of the county, in which the district is located, all records of location notices or other documents affecting titles to mining claims in the mining district, shown by the records of the district.
County recorders of the counties shall accept any location notices and other documents affecting title to mining claims of dissolved mining districts. Thereafter all notices and documents shall be open for public inspection.
(Added by Stats. 1988, Ch. 259, Sec. 11.)
As for 1872 mining law, no where in it does it outline any requirements for how to form a mining district, maybe I'm blind, but still no one is showing a citation of the text that covers it. There are people in this thread and others that say the people reorganizing the old districts aren't doing it right, yet they can't say, with citation, the way it should be done. In the 1872 mining law I don't see any requirement for a majority of miners to be involved, anything about a notification process (so many days), etc. So if these people are in fact reorganizing these districts against how mining law states, I'm all ears for seeing the citations that show they're wrong. Maybe I've missed it in the law, maybe it's under a different law and not the 1872, hence why I'm asking for the citations. I'm trying to educate myself here.
Your comments actually illustrate the issue quite well.