Mineral

adj. Relating to minerals or the process and business of mining; bearing or producing valuable minerals.

— Mineral district. A term occasionally used in acts of congress, designating in a general way those portions or regions of the country where valuable minerals are mostly found, or where the business of mining is chiefly carried on, but carrying no very precise meaning and not a known term of the law. See U. S. v. Smith (C. O.) 11 Fed. 490.

— Mineral lands. See LAND.

— Mineral land entry. See Entry.

n. Any valuable inert or lifeless substance formed or deposited in its present position through natural agencies alone, and which is found either in or upon the soil of the earth or in the rocks beneath the soil. Barringer & Adams, Mines, p. lxxvi. Any natural constituent of the crust of the earth, inorganic or fossil, homogeneous in structure, having a definite chemical composition and known crystallization. See Webster; Cent. Diet. The term includes ail fossil bodies or matters dug out of mines or quarriee, whence anything may be dug, such as beds of stone which may be quarried. Earl of Rosse v. Wainman, 14 Mees. & W. 872. In its common acceptation, the term may be said to include those parts of the earth which are capable of being mined or extracted from beneath the surface, and which have a commercial value. Williams v. South Penn Oil Co., 52 W. Va. 181, 43 S. E. 214, 60 L. R. A. 795. But, in its widest sense, "minerals" may be described as comprising all the substances which now form or which once lormed a part of the solid body of the earth, bath external and internal, and which are now destitute of or incapable of supporting animal or vegetable life. In this sense, the word includes not only the various ores of the precious metals, but also coal, clay, marble, stone of various sorts, slate, salt, sand, natural gas, petroleum, and water. See Northern Pac. R. Co. v. Soderberg, 104 Fed. 425, 43 C. C. A. 620; Murray v. Allred, 100 Tenn. 100, 48 S. W. 355, 39 In R. A. 249, 66 Am St. Rep. 740; Gibson v. Tyson. 5 Watts (Pa.) 38; Henry v. Lowe, 73 Mo. 99; Westmoreland, etc., Gas Co., v. De Witt, 130 Pa. 235, 18 Atl. 724, 5 I R. A. 731; Marvel v. Merritt, 116 U. S. 11, 6 Sup. Ct. 207, 29 In Ed. 560; Caldwell v. Fulton, 31 Pa. 475, 72 Am. Dec. 760; Dunham v. Kirkpatrick, 101 Pa. 43, 47 Am. Rep. 696; State v. Parker, 61 Tex. 268; Ridgway Light, etc., Co., v. Elk Co.unty, 191 Pa. 465, 43 Atl. 323.

That which is mined. Though frequently applied to substances containing metals, in its proper sense includss all fossil bodies or matters dug out of mines.' A fossil, or what is dug out of the earth.

In its enlarged sense, comprises all the substances which form, or have formed, part of the solid body of the earth, both external and internal, and which are now destitute of, and incapable of supporting, animal or vegetable life.* Petroleum is a mineral, and as much a part of the realty as timber or coal.' A right to experiment for oil, and to sever and remove it upon giving a portion to the lessor, is a license to work land for minerals; and so coupled with an interest as not to be revocable at the pleasure of the licensor.* Where the grantor in a deed conveying realty reserved certain timber and "all minerals," and the grantee claimed the mineral oil, the court said: " It is true that iietroleum is a mineral; but so are salt and other waters, impregnated or combined with mineral substances; so are rocks, clays, and sand: anything dug from mines or quarries; in fine, all inorganic substances are classed under the general name of ' minerals.' It the reservation embraced all these things, It is as extensive as the grant. That something may be retained for the vendor, ' minerals ' must then be limited in its meaning. The parties doubtless thought and wrote, not as scientists, but as business men using the language of every-day lif e; and in popular estimation petroleum is not regarded as a mineral substance any more than is animal or vegetable oil, and it can, indeed, be so classified only in the most general or scientific sense.' Minerals beneath the surface may be conveyed by a deed, distinct from the right to the surface. They constitute a corporeal hereditament, and pass by apt words, with delivery of the deed and registration. « > Kahn v. Smelting Co., 102 U. S. 645 (1880); Bissell v. Toss, 114 id. 360 (1883), cases; 4S Cal. 370; 79 Va. 160; 60 E. C. L. 685. ' Higgins V. Armstrong, 9 Col. 46 (1885); 5 id. 111. ' Eosse V. Wainman, 14 M. & W. *872 (1845), Parke, B. < [Bainbridge, Mines, &c., 1, cases. 5 Appeal of Stoughton, 88 Pa. 198 (1878). 8 Funk V. Halderman; 53 Pa. 229 (1866). ' Dunham v. Kirkpatrick, 101 Pa. 43^4 (1883), Gordon, J. See also Hartwell v. Camman, 10 N. J. E. 128, The law recognizes horizontal divisions of land. A severance of the surface from the underlying strata may be created, either by reservation or express grant; after severance, a mineral right is an independent interest. Thus, one person may own the ironore, another the coal, another the limestone, another the petroleum, and another the surface.' But each proprietor must so use hie own property as not to injure another proprietor." A tenant for life cannot open and operate a new mine: it would injure the inheritance; but his right to operate previously opened mines, and work them, even to exhaustion, cannot be questioned. ^ What is termed a mineral lease is frequently found to be an actual sale of a portion of the land. It differs from an ordinary lease in this, tliat, although both convey an interest in land, the latter merely conveys the right to its temporaiy use and occupation, while the former conveys absolutely a portion of the land itself. If the entire interest of the lessor is conveyed, in the whole or a portion of his land, the conveyance cannot properly be regarded as a " demise," but as an " assignment." * See Mine; Aqua, Currit, etc.; Land, Public; Qdarey; Vein; Waste, 1.

The words "mines and minerals," in a deed, do not convey all the mineral kingdom, as distinguished from the animal or vegetable; nor are they restricted to any one of the subdivisions invented by chemists. A paint-stone, found below the earth, and distinct from the earth around it, and worked by the ordinary mining appliances, passes by these words. Hartwell 0. Camman, 10 N. J. Eq. 128. The term mineral products, in a revenue law, has been held to include coal-oil. Thompson v. Noble, 3 Pittsb. 201.