Montana § 82-2-103 - Affidavit Of Performance Of Annual Work

§ 82-2-103. Affidavit Of Performance Of Annual Work

Affidavit of performance of annual work. (1) The owner of a lode or placer claim who performs or causes to be performed the annual work or makes the improvements required by the laws of the United States, as permitted and defined by laws of the United States, in order to prevent the forfeiture of the shall, within 90 days after the expiration of the federal annual assessment work period, file in the office of the county clerk of the county in which the claim or claims are situated the owner's affidavit or an affidavit of the person who performed the work or made the improvements, showing: (a) the name of the mining claim or claims; (b) the location of the claim or claims by section, township, and range, by projected survey lines if located in unsurveyed country; (c) the book and page numbers in which the original or latest amended relocation for each claim is recorded; (d) the number of days of work done and the character and value of the improvements placed on the claim or the verified report required by United States mining law if geological, geophysical, or geochemical work or labor is being relied upon; (e) the dates between which the work or improvements were effected; (f) at whose instance the work was done or the improvements were made; and (g) the actual amount paid for work and improvements and by whom paid when the work and improvements were not done by the owner. (2) Annual assessment work may be performed or caused to be performed at one or more points within a group of contiguous claims and may be utilized to satisfy annual assessment work requirements upon the group of contiguous claims. The point or points of work may be performed upon a patented claim. If annual assessment work is performed or caused to be performed at one or more points within a group of contiguous claims, the affidavit of performance of assessment work must be filed for the group of claims. The affidavit, in addition to requirements established by this section for affidavits of performance of assessment work, must contain a description and location of the work done upon the group at a point or points within the group, the specific names of all the claims in the group for whose benefit the work was performed, and the total cost of the work performed. (3) If group work is claimed for a group of claims crossing county lines, the affidavit required by this section must be filed for recording within the required time in each of the counties in which the claims are located. (4) An affidavit of performance of annual assessment work must be verified before some officer authorized to administer oaths by the locator or one of the locators, if there is more than one, or by an authorized agent. In the case of a corporation, the verification may be made by an officer of the corporation or by an authorized agent. When the verification is made by an agent, the fact of the agency must be stated in the affidavit. The affidavit or a certified copy of the affidavit is prima facie evidence of the facts stated in the affidavit. The failure to file the affidavits within the period allowed is prima facie evidence that the labor has not been performed and that the owner of the claim or claims has abandoned and surrendered the claim or claims.