Chapter 16 - EXHIBIT 16A • PATENTED MINING CLAIM

• Jurisdiction: Colorado

EXHIBIT 16A • PATENTED MINING CLAIM

PATENTED MINING CLAIMS

The Bodie Lode and the Grover Lode were included in Mineral Survey No. 6415 and were patented in patent no. 25739. The Bodie Lode and the Grover Lode overlapped to the extent of 2.782 acres, and the Bodie Lode also overlapped the prior Red Cap Lode to the extent of 3.902 acres. The patent for the Bodie Lode and the Grover Lode separately described each of these claims by metes and bounds, and then provided:

Expressly excepting and excluding from these presents all that portion of the ground hereinbefore described, embraced in said Red Cap lode claim, unsurveyed . . . .

The priority between the Bodie Lode and the Grover Lode was not resolved in the patent or in the Plat of Mineral Survey. The question of priority, i.e., which claim is entitled to the area in conflict, becomes important when the owner of both the Bodie Lode and the Grover Lode separately conveys one or the other of these claims. This question is resolved by the field notes of the mineral survey,¹ which allocate the area in conflict between the two claims. In this case, the field notes of the mineral survey provide:

Area
Total area of Bodie Lode	9.810 Acres
Area in conflict with Grover Lode	2.782 Acres
Red Cap Lode unsurveyed	3.902
Total area of Bodie Lode	9.810 Acres
Less area in conflict	3.902
Net area of Bodie Lode	5.908
Total area of Grover Lode	10.331 Acres
Less area in conflict with Bodie Lode	2.782 Acres
Net area of Grover Lode	7.549 Acres
Net area of Bodie Lode	5.908 Acres
Net area of Lode Claims	13.547 Acres

Thus, the Bodie Lode is junior to the conflicting Red Cap Lode, but is senior to the conflicting Grover Lode. A conveyance of the Bodie Lode, describing it only by Mineral Survey Number, would include the area in conflict with the Grover Lode but not the area in conflict with the Red Cap Lode: a conveyance of the Grover...