PURCHASE, ASSAYING AND RECOVERY OF ORES

Nev. Rev. Stat. 519

in effect

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.010 Possessors of mining claims deemed lawful owners of ores therefrom.

Any person, copartnership, association or corporation in the actual and peaceable possession of any mining claim, under claim or color of title, and engaged in the mining, shipment and treatment, or sale of ores therefrom, shall, as to all persons purchasing such ore or ores in good faith and without notice as provided in NRS 519.030 of the title or claim of title or ownership of any other person, copartnership, association or corporation thereto, be deemed to be the lawful owner or owners of such ore or ores.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.020 Purchasers in good faith deemed owners of ores.

Any person who, or copartnership, association or corporation which, shall in good faith and in the usual course of business and without notice, as provided in NRS 519.030, purchase and obtain delivery of any ore or ores from any person, copartnership, association or corporation in possession of the mines, mining claim or claims from which such ore or ores shall have been mined and extracted, shall be deemed the owner or owners of such ores except as provided in NRS 519.010 to 519.050, inclusive. The person, copartnership, association or corporation deemed to be the owner or owners of the ore or ores shall not be liable to, or subject to, any action at law or in equity for the recovery of the same or the value thereof by any person, copartnership, association or corporation who or which may thereafter be adjudged to be the owner or owners of such mine, mines, mining claim or claims.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.030 Notice to purchasers of their liability; institution of action to enforce title.

1. If any person, copartnership, association or corporation shall be or shall claim to be the owner or owners, or entitled to the possession or enjoyment, of any mine, mines, mining claim, claims or premises, then in the possession of some other person, copartnership, association or corporation claiming to be the owner or owners or entitled to the possession thereof, and mining, shipping and treating or selling the ore therefrom, the person, copartnership, association or corporation may, if the person, copartnership, association or corporation shall intend or desire to hold purchasers of or those intending to purchase such ore or ores responsible for the value thereof, serve or cause to be served upon such purchaser or purchasers, or intending purchaser or purchasers, a notice in writing, which shall contain: (a) The name of the mine, mines, mining claim, claims or premises. (b) The name of the person, copartnership, association or corporation claiming or asserting ownership or right to the possession or enjoyment thereof. (c) The name or names of the person, copartnership, association or corporation in possession of and mining, shipping and selling ore therefrom. (d) A warning to such purchaser or purchasers, or intending purchaser or purchasers, that he, she, they or it will be held liable and responsible for all ore or ores by him, her, them or it purchased and delivered or to be purchased and delivered from such mine, mines, mining claim, claims or premises by such person, copartnership, association or corporation, or his, her, their or its heirs, assigns or agents subsequent to the service of such notice. 2. Within 30 days from and after the service of such notice, the person, copartnership, association or corporation serving or causing to be served the same shall: (a) Institute an action to enforce his, her, their or its title in some court of competent jurisdiction against the person, copartnership, association or corporation in possession of and mining and shipping ore from such mine, mines, mining claim, claims or premises, and to enjoin him, her, them or it from the mining or shipment and sale of ores taken therefrom pending such action; and (b) At once notify such purchaser or purchasers or intending purchaser or purchasers of such ore or ores of the pendency of such action. 3. If the notice required by this section shall be served after an action shall have been instituted, it shall not be necessary to commence another under the provisions hereof.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.040 Liability of claimant for failure to institute action after service of notice.

If any person, copartnership, association or corporation claiming title to or right of possession of such mine, mines, mining claim, claims or premises, not having before then brought action, shall serve a notice upon any purchaser or purchasers or intending purchaser or purchasers of ore or ores, as provided in NRS 519.030, and shall fail or neglect to institute an action as required in NRS 519.030, such notice shall be deemed to have been waived, and the person or persons serving such notice shall be liable to the persons injured thereby in double damages including costs and reasonable attorney fees, and such purchaser or purchasers or intending purchaser or purchasers shall not be bound by anything therein contained.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.050 Liability of purchaser after notice and institution of action.

Any purchaser of ore or ores who or which shall have received the notice provided for in NRS 519.030, and followed or preceded by the commencement of an action as therein set forth, who shall purchase or continue to purchase and receive ores taken from the mine, mines, mining claim, claims or premises named therein, shall be liable and responsible for the value thereof to the person, copartnership, association or corporation who or which shall be ultimately adjudged or decreed to be the owner or entitled to the possession thereof.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.060 Payment for ores within 30 days after delivery, sale or settlement; penalty.

1. Every person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of purchasing, sampling, reducing or refining of ores, the predominating value of which is in gold or silver, for others, shall make settlement with and pay to the seller of such ores the value thereof, after lawful deductions, within 30 days after the delivery and sampling of such ores. 2. Every person, firm or corporation engaged in the business of purchasing, sampling, or in the treatment or reduction or smelting, of ores or metal, for others, shall make settlement with and pay to the seller of such metals the value thereof, after agreed and lawful deductions, within 30 days after the sale of the products of such metal by the smelter, mill, reduction works, refinery or sampler reducing or refining the same. 3. Every person, firm or corporation or lessor shipping ores, bullion or metals to any smelter, mill, sampler or reduction works or refinery for another, shall make settlement with and pay to the person or persons entitled thereto the value of such ores, bullion or metals, within 30 days after the settlement therefor shall have been made by the smelter, mill, reduction works, refinery or sampler purchasing or reducing or refining the same. 4. Any person violating any of the provisions of this section commits an unlawful conversion, and is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.070 Unlawful to change value of ore, substitute ore or issue false bill of sale or certificate of purchase; penalty.

Any person, corporation or association, or the agent of any person, corporation or association, engaged in the milling, smelting, sampling, concentrating, reducing, shipping or purchasing of ores in this state, who shall in any manner knowingly alter or change the true value of any ores delivered to the person, corporation, association or agent so as to deprive the seller of the correct value of the same, or who shall substitute other ores for those delivered to the person, corporation, association or agent, or who shall issue any bill of sale, or certificate of purchase, that does not exactly and truthfully state the actual weight, assay value, and total amount paid for any lot or lots of ore purchased, or who, by any secret understanding or agreement with another shall issue a bill of sale or certificate of purchase that does not correctly and truthfully set forth the weight, assay value and total amount paid for any lot or lots of ore purchased by the person, corporation, association or agent, shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.080 Records of assayers and purchasers: Contents.

Every assayer, person, partnership, association or corporation engaged in the business, or who or which may hereafter be engaged, directly, indirectly or occasionally in the business, or who or which, being engaged in other business, shall at any time assay, mill, sample, reduce, ship, transport, buy, purchase, trade in, barter, concentrate, smelt, refine or sell metalliferous-bearing ores, free gold, gold dust, gold amalgam, gold nuggets, gold specimens, gold bullion, free silver, silver nuggets, silver bullion, lead or lead bullion, copper or copper bullion, shall keep and preserve a book of records thereof, in which shall be entered at the times they shall occur the following entries, with the dates thereof: 1. The name of the assayer, person, persons, partnership, association or corporation on whose behalf such ore, free gold, gold dust, gold amalgam, gold nuggets, gold specimens, gold bullion, free silver, silver nuggets, silver bullion, lead, lead bullion, copper or copper bullion is delivered, or purchased, or sampled, or transported, or sold, or reduced, or smelted, or milled, as the case may be. 2. The weight or quantity thereof, and a short description of each and every lot or consignment thereof. 3. The name or names of the teamster or teamsters, packer or packers, or other person or persons actually delivering or transferring the same, and each and every portion of the same, and the name or names of the owner or owners of the team, pack train, railway or express company, automobile or other conveyance used or employed in and for such delivery. 4. The name and location of the mine, mining claim, mining location, or other premises from which the same has been or purports to have been extracted, mined or procured, and if the products or property consists of concentrates, amalgam, bullion concentrates, free gold or free silver, there shall also be recorded the name and location of the mill, concentrator, refinery or smelter which milled or purported to have milled, reduced, concentrated, smelted or refined the same, and for whom such milling, reducing, refining, concentration or smelting was done. 5. The date of the receipt thereof, and whether received by purchase, barter, trade or gift, or for treatment, concentration, reduction, sampling, refining, assay, transportation, sale, exchange or otherwise. 6. Whenever the assayer, person, partnership, association or corporation receiving any property hereinabove specifically designated shall become the owner thereof by purchase, barter, trade or exchange, there shall also be recorded in the book a statement showing the amount and terms of such purchase, barter, trade or exchange. 7. Whenever the assayer, person, partnership, association, or corporation receiving any property herein specifically designated shall as agent, factor, broker or in any other capacity sell, barter, trade or exchange the same for and in behalf of the owner or reputed owner thereof, there shall also be recorded in the book the date, names of the persons, the amount and character of the property sold or disposed of, and the amount of such transaction. 8. The interest, if any, of the delivering person, partnership, association or corporation in the property or any part thereof hereinabove specifically designated, whether as owner, lessee, pledgee, superintendent, foreman or workman in the mine, mining claim, mining location, premises, mill, concentrator, sampler, refiner or smelting works from which the same was or purports to have been mined or treated.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.090 Examination of books of assayer and purchaser upon affidavit of theft or other unlawful taking.

1. Whenever an affidavit shall be made by any person before any justice of the peace or district judge that any ore, free gold, gold dust, gold amalgam, gold nuggets, gold specimens, gold bullion, free silver, silver nuggets, silver bullion, lead, lead bullion, copper or copper bullion has been stolen or unlawfully taken from the person, or from any copartnership, association or corporation in which the person is interested or in which the person is an officer or agent, stating as near as may be the character, amount and value thereof, such person by himself, herself, or his or her attorneys, or both, upon presentation of such affidavit, or a copy thereof duly certified as such by the officer before whom the same is verified, shall have access to such book or books of any and every assayer, person, partnership, association or corporation required to keep the same by the provisions of NRS 519.080 , and may freely and without hindrance or interference, read and examine all entries which may have been made therein during a period of 60 days next preceding the date of such affidavit. 2. The examination provided for in this section may be made by the person making such affidavit, or the partnership, association or corporation in whose behalf the same is made, only if such person or partnership, association or corporation shall at the time thereof have a present ownership or interest in the assay office, mine, claim, premises, mill, smelter, concentrator, refinery or establishment from which such ores, free gold, gold dust, gold amalgam, gold specimens, gold bullion, silver, silver nuggets, silver bullion, lead, lead bullion, copper or copper bullion has been stolen or unlawfully taken or alleged to have been stolen or unlawfully taken.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.100 Penalty for failing to keep books, making false entries or refusing to allow inspections.

Every assayer, person, copartnership, association or corporation described in NRS 519.080 who or which shall fail, refuse or neglect to keep the book or books, or to make the entries therein as required in NRS 519.080, or who or which shall make or cause to be made any false or fictitious entry therein, or who or which shall refuse the right of inspection thereof to any person entitled thereto as provided in NRS 519.090, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.110 Failure, refusal or neglect of assayer or purchaser not to operate as excuse or defense.

If any assayer, person, partnership, association or corporation shall fail, refuse or neglect to make the inquiries or secure the information necessary to the making of the proper entries in the book as provided in NRS 519.080, or shall so negligently and imperfectly make such entry or entries that the nature, character or value of the ore or other property therein mentioned, or the assayer, partnership, person, association or corporation delivering the same or receiving the proceeds thereof cannot be ascertained, identified or determined, or shall fail, neglect or refuse to keep such book or books, or shall willfully lose or mislay or willfully or knowingly permit to be lost or mislaid the book or books, so that the same cannot be produced for inspection as provided in NRS 519.090, such failure, refusal or neglect shall not excuse, protect or operate as a defense to any such assayer, partnership, association or corporation as defendant or defendants in any action or prosecution brought or instituted under the provisions of NRS 519.080 to 519.110, inclusive.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.120 Assayers to identify bullion or amalgam; penalty for refusal or neglect to comply.

1. Every person or firm engaged in the business of assaying within this state shall be required to place a written description, pasted on or stamped upon every bar of bullion or amalgam melted, retorted, assayed or refined by such person or firm, containing the name of the person or company by whom such bullion or amalgam was deposited with or sold to such person or firm. 2. Every person or firm engaged in the business of assaying within this state who shall neglect or refuse to comply with the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a gross misdemeanor.

Nev. Rev. Stat. § 519.130 Statement required in certain documents containing results of assay; penalties; enforcement.

1. Except as otherwise provided in subsection 4, every person or firm engaged in the business of assaying within this state shall, in each report or other document containing the results of an assay conducted by the person or firm which is created or produced for a commercial purpose, provide in the report or document a statement, prominently displayed and in bold type, which reads substantially as follows: The results of this assay were based solely upon the content of the sample submitted. Any decision to invest should be made only after the potential investment value of the claim or deposit has been determined based on the results of assays of multiple samples of geologic materials collected by the prospective investor or by a qualified person selected by the prospective investor and based on an evaluation of all engineering data which is available concerning any proposed project. 2. Any person or firm who knowingly violates the provisions of subsection 1 is: (a) For the first violation, guilty of a misdemeanor. (b) For a second or subsequent violation, guilty of a gross misdemeanor. 3. The right to enforce the provisions of this section vests exclusively in the Attorney General. 4. The provisions of this section do not apply to a person who is required to file an annual statement pursuant to the provisions of NRS 362.110 . 5. As used in this section, business of assaying means a business that determines the elemental composition of samples of geologic materials for a fee or other valuable consideration.

Source: NV Statutes (Official Site)URL: https://www.leg.state.nv.us/nrs/NRS-519.htmlFetched: 10/4/2026