marketability test
marketability test. Mining law. The principle that, for someone to obtain a patent on a mining claim on federal land, there must be a showing that a reasonably prudent person could extract and market the claimed mineral at a profit, and that at the time of discovery, a large enough market for the mineral existed to attract the efforts of a reasonably prudent person. [Cases: Mines and Minerals 39. C.J.S. Mines and Minerals §§ 114, 129–130.]
