ABSTRACT
The antecedents of the federal mineral policy fashioned between 1866 and 1872 have been traced back centuries, if not millennia. 1 The crown charters of the early American colonies authorized grants of mineral land to adventurers, subject to a perpetual reservation by the crown of a rental consisting of portions of the minerals extracted. 2 With the formation of the new nation after the American Revolution, the Land Ordinance of 1785 continued this policy by reserving to the Congress for its disposition one-third of the output from public lands of "all gold, silver, lead and copper mines." With the demise of the Continental Congress, however, this practice ceased. 3
