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Courts have recognized the right of corporation# engaged in mining, whose operations of course amount to a wasting of the capital, to declare dividends from the profits derived from the business, although such profits must neces­sarily result in the reduction of the amount of the capital of the company. One of the leading cases on this point is that of Excelsior etc. G o . vi Pierce, 90 Cal. 131. In this case it is said: “The t o m 'capital stock* has a double meaning as applied to corporations. In one sense, it is the sum mentioned in the articles of incorporation as the amount of the capital stock; in other words, it is the share capital or nominal capital, and does iiot necessarily represent a corresponding amount of aotual capital. In case of mining corporations, it is always arbitrary and generally extravagant in amount." "The capital stock referred to in the statute, how­ever, (Civ. Code,Seo.309) is the actual property of the corporation contributed by the share-holders of the nominal capital. In this case the nominal or share capital of the plaintiff was five million dollars. Its actual capital was its mining and other property (less the debt with which it was encumbered) received in ex­change for the shares which it issued, and this actual capital was what it was forbidden to divide." "This inhibition, however, did net extend to the net proceeds of its mining operations; ib r a mining corpora­tion, like any other corporation organized for the purpose of utilizing a wasting' property,- a property that can be used only by consuming it,- as a mins, a lease, or a patent, is not deemed to have divided its capital merely because it has distributed the net proceeds of its mining operations, although the necessary result is that so much has been subtracted from the substance of its estate. (Morawetz on corporations, sec. 442; Lee v. ITeughatel Asphalts Co., L.B. 41 Ch. Div. 24). It may distribute (4)