R. W. Brubaker, Who is Also Known as Ronald W. Brubaker v. Rogers C. B. Morton, as Secretary of the Interior of the United States Ofamerica

The Secretary of the Interior invalidated appellants’ placer mining claims located on public lands. Appellants sued, contending that the Secretary erred in concluding that mineral deposits of colored stone, used for decorative roofing material, were “common varieties” of stone, not subject to claim and location under the federal mining laws. The district court agreed with the Secretary, and granted summary judgment. We affirm.

The Secretary’s decision was the culmination of administrative proceedings initiated by the filing of contests by the Bureau of Land Management in 1963, charging that the claims were of a “common variety” of stone, not locatable under the mining laws at the times the claims were located. After ten years of hearings and administrative appeals, the Interior Board of Land Appeals, acting pursuant to authority delegated to it by the Secretary, 43 C.F.R. § 4.1 , held that appellants’ claims were void because their brightly colored stone, while selling for a higher price than gray stone, did not have a special and distinct value over that of other stone deposits in common supply in the same market area. Hence, their stone was a common variety within the…