Between 1872 and 1920 rights to hardrock mineral stocks and petroleum reservoirs on public lands in the western United States were assigned using essentially the same system. In 1920, however, Congress enacted a leasing system for petroleum, leaving the 1872 Mining Law intact for hardrock...

Under the 1872 Mining Law, claimants can to acquire outright title to federal lands. Yet miners have not widely used this land-disposal feature, known as the mineral patent provision, since the early part of the century. In this paper I use a property rights framework to examine the relationship...