Bulletin-16—Mining, Oil, and Mineral Laws of New Mexico

By C. H. Fowler and S. B. Talmage, 1941, 251 pp., 1 index. Supersedes Bulletin 6.

This bulletin consists of three parts: Part I is the introduction containing sections on mining laws of NM lands, government lands, Indian lands, state lands, and privately owned lands. Part II, Basic Federal Statutes, contains sections on Title 32 of Chapter 6, the leasing act of 1920, Chapter 4, and Chapter 5. Part III, NM Statutes, contains sections on the Enabling Act, excerpts from the NM constitution, and chapters 88, 132, 151, 97, 104, 111, 134, 141, 105, 35, and 130.

The NM Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources was established in 1927. Its chief functions are to compile and distribute information regarding mineral industries in the state, through field studies and collections, laboratory and library research, and the publication of the results of such investigations. A full list of the publications of the NM Bureau of Mines is given on the last pages of this bulletin, following the index.

In 1930, the state Bureau of Mines and Mineral Resources published Bulletin 6. There was greater demand for this bulletin than for any previous publication of the Bureau, and the edition was soon exhausted. There is demand for a similar work, but in view of extensive new legislation a simple reprint of Bulletin 6 seems not justified, and it has been decided to bring  out this present bulletin, Bulletin 16, which covers its field but which is expanded in scope and treatment and brought up to date.

This work is not a treatise on the mining laws of NM or of the US, and it does not attempt to enable the reader to proceed unaided in the legal phases of or related to the varied activities of the mining industry. It is a compilation, under one convenient cover, of the statutes of NM now in effect going to make up what is commonly referred to as the mining law, and pertaining to the location, holding, possession, and operation under the general laws of properties valuable for their mineral content.

In furtherance of its primary objects of setting forth the state laws on the subject matter of mines and mining, oil and gas lands and operations, and directly related subjects, this bulletin also presents the text of federal mining and leasing statutes deemed basic and essential here; but no attempt is made to include all matters of the federal laws affecting the mining or oil industries, or statutes of local and limited application not touching NM.