Esmeralda Water Co. v. MacKley

OPINION

By the Court,

Badt, J.:

This appeal presents for our chief consideration the question of the ownership of tailings deposited by a mining and milling company, from its own and custom ores, or from custom ores alone, upon open and unappropriated public domain and there impounded in a tailings pond by a dam or retaining yrall, as against a subsequent placer locator of ground including the tailings pond. Lest this seem over simple in view of the well-recognized rule sustaining the title to and possession of such tailings (unless abandoned) as ag’ainst a subsequent location, we must add that…