1. General Mining Act of 1872 By: Jennifer Ruiz, Walter DeBose, Abdikadir Farah

2. The Main Idea It give prospectors the authority to govern their own mining and allowed them to take what was theirs as long as the government got a share of what they made. This law was approved on May 10, 1872, codified the informal system of acquiring and protecting mining claims on public land, formed by prospectors in California and Nevada from the late 1840s through the 1860s, such as during the California Gold Rush.