Mining Claims
What they are and the different types.
Definitions: Lode claims
* Mill
Site *
Patented Mining Claims *
Placer Claims * Tunnel Sites
* Unpatented Mining Claims
Differences
in Ownership of certain types of claims:
PATENTED
MINING CLAIM: A patented mining claim is one for
which the Federal Government has passed its title to the claimant, making
it private land. A person may mine and remove minerals from a mining claim
without a mineral patent. However. a mineral patent gives the owner exclusive
title to the locatable minerals. It also gives the owner title to the surface
and other resources.
this
means: You own the Land as well as the minerals
UNPATENTED
MINING CLAIM: An Unpatented mining claim is a particular parcel
of Federal land, valuable for a specific mineral deposit or deposits. It
is a parcel for which an individual has asserted a right of possession.
The right is restricted to the extraction and development of a mineral
deposit. The rights granted by a mining claim are valid against a challenge
by the United States and other claimants only after the discovery of a
valuable mineral deposit.
this
means: You are leasing, from the government, the right to extract
minerals. No land ownership is conveyed.
There
are two types of mining claims, lode and placer.
Lode
Claims: Deposits
subject to lode claims include classic veins or lodes having well-defined
boundaries. They also include other rock in-place bearing valuable minerals
and may be broad zones of mineralized rock. Examples include quartz or
other veins bearing gold or other metallic minerals and large volume but
low-grade disseminated metallic deposits. Lode claims are usually described
as parallelograms with the longer side lines parallel to the vein or lode
. Descriptions are by metes and bounds surveys (giving length and direction
of each boundary line). Federal statute limits their size to a maximum
of 1,500 feet in length along the vein or lodge. Their width is a maximum
of 600 feet, 300 feet on either side of the centerline of the vein or lode.
The end lines of the lode claim must be parallel to qualify for underground
extralateral rights. Extralateral rights involve the rights to minerals
that extend at depth beyond the vertical boundaries of the claim.
Placer
Claims: Mineral deposits subject to placer claims include all
those deposits not subject to lode claims. Originally, these included only
deposits of unconsolidated materials, such as sand and gravel, containing
free gold or other minerals. By Congressional acts and judicial interpretations,
many nonmetallic bedded or layered deposits, such as gypsum and high calcium
limestone, are also considered placer deposits.
Placer claims,
where practicable, are located by legal subdivision of land(for example:
the E 1/2 NE 1/3 NE 1/4, Section 2, Township 10 South, Range 21 East, Mount
Diablo Meridian). The maximum size of a placer claim is 20 acres per locator
.
There
are two types of mineral entries, mill sites and tunnel sites.
Mill
Sites: A mill site must be located on nonmineral land. Its purpose
is to either (1) support a lode or placer mining claim operation or (2)
support itself independent of any particular claim. A mill site must include
the erection of a mill or reduction works and/or may include other uses
reasonably incident to the support of a mining operation. Descriptions
of mill sites are by metes and bounds surveys or legal subdivision. The
maximum size of a mill site is 5 acres.
Tunnel
Sites: A tunnel site is where a tunnel is run to develop a vein
or lode. It may also be used for the discovery of unknown veins or lodes.
To stake a tunnel site, two stakes are placed up to 3,000 feet apart on
the line of the proposed tunnel. Recordation is the same as a lode claim.
Some States require additional centerline stakes (for example, in Nevada
centerline stakes must be placed at 300-foot intervals).
An individual
may locate lode claims to cover any or all blind (not known to exist) veins
or lodes intersected by the tunnel. The maximum distance these lode claims
may exist is 1,500 feet on either side of the centerline of the tunnel.
This, in essence, gives the mining claimant the right to prospect an area
3,000 feet wide and 3,000 feet long. Any mining claim located for a blind
lode discovered while driving a tunnel relates back in time to the date
of the location of the tunnel site.