ABSTRACT
The law of discovery today remains as uncertain and confused as it was in the nineteenth century. Some mining industry lawyers decry the resurgence of a test for discovery based on profitability.1 They see it as an ominous trend toward making the discovery concept elastic, allowing it to reflect larger policy considerations in determining when mining under the Mining Law can take place on federal lands. Others regard the test as a "dangerous weapon that can accelerate the trend toward a mineral leasing system55 for hardrock minerals, but concede that pertinent laws show, "there is a basis oflogicfor[it].552
