Ore Genesis, Classification, and Exploitation

As we have seen in Chapter 7, water rights law recognizes distinct classes of water, and different legal theories have been established for each class and for different geographic occurrences of water. Although this approach allows for flexibility in dealing with different environments, it fails to recognize the realities of the hydrologic cycle and can be an obstacle to a comprehensive approach toward regulating water use. Historically, mineral law also recognizes distinct classes of mineral deposits with different rules and hypotheses for each class. Early efforts to develop a legal system for the mining profession focused on the shallow vein-type deposits and on the placer deposits that were being mined, and incorporated the terminology and practices of the practical miner and local mining districts. The realities of the rock cycle, the principles of ore genesis, and the greater variety of mineral deposits were not considered, and this has had a significant impact on some controversies and on the development of mineral law. An understanding of the basic principles of ore genesis and deposition is essential to an understanding of the terms of the “practical miner,” those of the mining geologist, and the theories of mining law.