When any owner, tenant or subtenant of a lot or lots or tracts of land, shall file with any associate circuit judge within the county in which said lot or lots or tract of land may be situated, his or her affidavit, or the affidavit of any other credible person for them, stating that from knowledge, information or belief, the party or parties owning, controlling or working the adjoining lot or lots or tract of land, and upon which said party or parties are sinking shafts, mining, excavating and running drifts, and that said drifts in which said parties are digging, mining and excavating mineral ore or veins of coal extend beyond the lines and boundaries of said lot or lots or tract of land, owned, controlled or worked by them, and have entered in and upon the premises of the party or parties making said affidavit, or for whom said affidavit is made, the associate circuit judge, after first being tendered his lawful fees, shall issue his written order and deliver or cause the same to be delivered to the county surveyor or his deputy, commanding him, after his reasonable fees have been tendered, to proceed without delay to survey said drift by entering any and all shafts upon said lot or lots or tract of land that he (the surveyor) may see fit, for the purpose of ascertaining the course and distance of said drift or drifts, and to locate the same upon the surface.
§ 444.070, RSMo