New rules for hunting meteorites Options

[Woody]

Looks like the Feds are stepping up and placing restrictions on collecting meteorites. I recognize the interest and benefit science might have but the way I interpret this means more regulations placed on our public lands and activities. This might be a bit of a rant on my part but I hate all these rules and regulations on our public lands. I am reminded about the last time I was in the California N.F. I wanted to spend a couple of days in the back country camping. I found out that I needed a permit in order to even have a campfire. Here is another extreme, I was in Germany a few years ago and got an annual fishing license. It cost about 100$. However, if you actually wanted to use it you had to go down to the county court house before the last business day, and pay an additional cost for each and every day you planned on fishing. It was about 10$ extra per day.

This kind of suggest the same thing, you can’t go out hunting meteorites unless you buy a permit.



http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/10/15/...intcmp=features

[Gene Kooper]

I'm not just speculating here. One of the foremost mining engineers and mining lawyers in American history proved, claimed, mined and received mineral patents totaling 640 acres to a meteorite deposit. Daniel Moureau Barringer mined tons of nickle rich iron as well as very rare Moissanite from his placer claims on Coon Butte. Today the official name is Berringer Crater but it's better known as simply Meteor Crater.

Yes, as EMac stated, 640 acres were patented to the Standard Iron Co in 1903. I attached a copy of the patent below.

[attachment=9913:CDI_93182.PDF]
As an additional wrinkle to this discussion, please note that the four claims that were patented are the Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn Placers. As you say Daniel Moreau Barringer was a mining attorney who with John Stokes Adams wrote the mining treatise, "The Law of Mines and Mining in the United States" (1st vol. 1897; reprinted in 1900 and 2nd supplemental vol. 1911). Here is the Google Book download link to Volume 1. Interesting to say the least that Barringer decided to claim the "deposit" with four placer claims. Below is a link to the plat that shows four open cuts (discoveries for the four placer locations) and three tunnels. Also, another oddity for EMac: Please note that although the four placers are each 160-acre association placers a mineral survey was required because the public lands survey had not been extended to this area yet. All four placer claims are tied to United States Location Monument No. 1806. Something odd happened early on in the public lands surveys in this area because there is a half Range (Meteor Crater is presently located in Secs. 13 and 24, T. 19 N., R 12½ E. of the Gila - Salt River Principal Meridian).

Mineral Sur. No. 1806 - Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn Placers

Obviously it is possible to claim, mine and receive patent to land where sufficient concentrated meteorite metal deposits are found. Simple collecting of scattered meteorite material does not amount to a valuable mineral deposit under the law so it is regulated just like rock or specimen collecting.

To add to your reply, the patent was issued in 1903. Standard Iron Co. did not have to catagorize the mineral deposit as coming from a meteor or that it was economic. They only had to meet the minimum requirement of having made $500 in mining improvements to obtain the patent. As an aside: The minimum of $500 in mining improvements was usually included in the approved survey's field notes and certified by the U.S. Dep. Mineral Surveyor in the old days. For cases where the $500 had not been met at the time of the survey, a separate affidavit of improvements made by the surveyor and a certificate of expenditures certified by the Surveyor General were included in the patent application.