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How Many Small Miners Are There?


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We've been experimenting with ways to share complex information more easily on Land Matters. Here's my latest efforts at making things clearer with a chart. It's a common question so I thought this might be a good test.
 
There are about 380,000 mining claims in the western mining states.

Out of those 380,000 mining claim there are about 19,236 that are declared as owned by small miners not subject to maintenance fees.

A little more than 5% of all claims are small miners.

Here's a chart that breaks down where those 19,236 small miners are by State and claim type.
 
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Let me know if this kind of chart works for you. If it does I'll make more. smile.png

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I guess it depends on how you define small miner. Most people with claims filing a small miners exemption are doing no mining at all. Many that are active are more involved in what I would define as exploration and/or development.

A better gauge would be number of people mining under approved plans of operation filing small miners exemptions. I would guess Alaska has the largest number of genuine small miners or what Alaska would call "family run mining operations". There are about 300 placer operations in the state, average employee count of four, many of them family run businesses http://www.alaskapublic.org/2015/01/13/placer-mining-big-business-in-alaska-report-finds/

Good information though and I do not want to come across as a critic - thanks for the effort!

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I was just going by the legal definition of a small miner Steve. Those miners with 10 or fewer claims that annually declare themselves small miners with a BLM waiver declaration. This standard has been in place since 1994 and forms the basis of one part of the charts calculations.

This isn't a chart of those who qualify as small miners. It's a chart of claims that were brought under the small miner waiver by their owners. That's why the display is broken down by State, Lode and Placer. Those terms couldn't apply to the small miner themselves. Small miners, like all other federal claimants, keep their public claims records in the state where the claims are located. Small miners themselves aren't broken down into lodes or placers.

I don't think I explained the chart basis in the title too well. Can you suggest another title that might explain the chart better? I'd be glad to change the title and repost.

I'm sure there are as many other definitions of what a small miner should be as there are readers here. Please do present your opinion and discuss it openly. Land Matters offers information to the public in the hope people will work from a common basis to resolve their differences and make a better future for all land users. We believe that common basis should be the facts

Just as each person has their own ideas about what a small miner should be there are common misunderstandings and clashes of opposing views on land use of all types. Often these differences are smaller than either side recognizes. Often the misunderstandings are based on rumor or myth. Reasonable miners aren't opposed to a clean environment any more than reasonable environmentalists are opposed to minerals and metals. There is common ground in every dispute, the trick is to leverage that common ground into a resolution that serves reasonable people.

Ignoring the fringe hardcore on any land use issue and granting both sides can agree on the facts being discussed people tend to work things out among themselves. Land Matters tries to help that process along by providing a repository of information to work from.

That's the reason Land Matters exists, to present the facts for all to see and to encourage people to shape their future on the land from basic reliable facts. When all the people have the facts the rest is up to them. Land Matters is an educational nonprofit 501c3 - not an advocacy group.

We strive to present "just the facts" at Land Matters so as to inform and educate. Opinions are welcome but are part of the results of considering and discussing the facts. Opinions themselves don't become part of the database of knowledge presented on Land Matters but the facts involved in any discussion can be.

Setting aside the legal definition of "small miner" I don't think your definition of a small miner would be very representative of actual small miners either if you think about it Steve. Many small miners with a POO never apply for the waiver.

You haven't included small miners working under an NOI or not subject to an NOI or POO. Prospecting and Discovery work both are "mining" under the law yet neither normally requires a POO. NOIs represent valid mining operations that don't require active land management coordination.  

Forest Service NOIs are not recorded as actions in most areas either so getting a handle on all the NOI operations would be a challenge to say the least. Keeping things small and following best practice mining is one of the strengths of small mining in my opinion. Doing so can lead to mining with no POO requirement at all. That is a goal many small miners have told us they aspire to.

Perhaps there is good reason to redefine "small miner" in the law to fit your definition Steve. With enough interest Land Matters would be glad to assemble, vet and present the facts relating to any other definition of small miner.

This is a bit of a touchy subject with small miners and the words themselves can be a hot button on both sides. The chart is one effort to bring some common ground to the discussion. I'm hoping to present the actual numbers involved so everyone can get a handle on just what we each mean when we discuss just what a small miners place in the scheme of things is.

Chris, the waiver basis for the figures are for ACTIVE status mining claims declared under small miner waivers as of November 15, 2015. Many waivers will still be denied for cause (or not). Those claimants under waivers that are denied will have the opportunity to change their status and pay the full claim fee or to challenge the waiver denial. The BLM typically doesn't even begin that process until January so these are current figures based on miner's declarations of status and ACTIVE mining case files.

Barry

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Do you have access to, or does the BLM even have available, the amount of NOI/POO's filed by state and year? There would be a few interesting graphs to make correlating that data to small miner waivers filed. If LR2000 has an action code for notices/plans then they definitely don't bother to update all the claims with it because my last NOI operation was never listed and I already reclamated and got my bond back.

 

I'm also kind of curious how the percentage of claims taking the small miner waiver varies by state.

 

Anyways, good job, I like looking at data visualizations. The surprising thing to me looking at that graph is that in most states there are more small miner waivers being applied to lode claims than to placer claims. I've only met 1 guy doing a small hardrock operation in the field, but I've met 5 or 10 guys doing small NOI level placer operations.

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Do you have access to, or does the BLM even have available, the amount of NOI/POO's filed by state and year? There would be a few interesting graphs to make correlating that data to small miner waivers filed. If LR2000 has an action code for notices/plans then they definitely don't bother to update all the claims with it because my last NOI operation was never listed and I already reclamated and got my bond back.

 

We do have that information jasong. Land Matters make a "snapshot" of the entire BLM database structure twice a month. That's a lot more information than is available through the LR2000. Those snapshots allow us to do time basis comparisons that can't be done off the static database. Those snapshots add up to about 1.5 Gb each.

 

I could dig out the action codes for notices or plans but that won't give you an accurate count. A good portion of surface plans are handled by other surface managers like the Forest Service. Each of those surface management agencies have their own regulations, procedures, and keep their own NOI and POO records. The BLM database does not show those other agencies notices or plans. They only track BLM land management actions.

 

I'm also kind of curious how the percentage of claims taking the small miner waiver varies by state.

I'm working on presenting that data soon. It is revealing. :)

 

Anyways, good job, I like looking at data visualizations. The surprising thing to me looking at that graph is that in most states there are more small miner waivers being applied to lode claims than to placer claims. I've only met 1 guy doing a small hardrock operation in the field, but I've met 5 or 10 guys doing small NOI level placer operations.

There are a lot more lode claims than placer claims in the western states. I'm not surprised there are so many lode small miners but I'm thinking the percentage of small miner lode claims compared to all lodes will come in pretty low compared to the small miner placer claims percentage.

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Cool looking forward to it.

 

Yeah, even not all BLM NOI's are created equal. For instance Canon City district now requires a NOI and bond to operate any motorized equipment on the Arkansas river. But it's only like $250. A small scale backhoe operation is 10x as much for reclamation bond, so they aren't really the same thing. even the BLM office refers to dredging as "recreational" or "casual" while still requiring their NOI and bond. The USFS in Medicine Bow Nat Forest in Wyoming requires NOI's for a 2" dredge that I can outdig with a hand shovel too and they cap the nozzle size to 3" even though you have to do a NOI...go figure. 3" is a toy.

 

Also in some cases the BLM handles the NOI for the USFS, also from personal experience in Colorado, same way they manage mineral leasing on other agency's land too.

 

Still, I think it'd be interesting to see a Waivers vs NOI graph by state anyways if you have the time, data, and motivation.

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Yikes! Sorry to say Barry I was not trying to be a league beagle or make legal definitions or any such thing. I'm just think like an old timer and to me there is prospecting, and there is mining. I am a prospector myself.

I do appreciate all the effort you make and your deep knowledge of the subject.

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It's the 90 day wonders that fly under the radar.

 

Seems like half the "claims" being offered on ebay and such sites  are just filed @ the county level and refiled every 90 days.

Ive even seen them in withdrawn areas and filed (county) over active claims.

 

This denies BLM the fees and data, and where applicable local taxes.

 

 

FWIW beware of any claim offering that has a document fee... 

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I have 8 claims that I work enough to qualify for my Small Miners Exemption. Some quite a bit more than others.

I am not 8 "small miners". Just one.

Some I would work more but California has, in effect, banned mining on them.

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I have 8 claims that I work enough to qualify for my Small Miners Exemption. Some quite a bit more than others.

I am not 8 "small miners". Just one.

Some I would work more but California has, in effect, banned mining on them.

 

And yet those association claims with 8 small miners are under represented. :D

 

I think my post title was a poor choice.  :blush: 

 

Obviously I meant How Many Small Miners Claims are There?

 

Although you could be 8 small miners :ph34r:      ...Hey you never know on an internet forum. :lol:

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