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Every year each claim needs to have a public record made at the County Recorder (mining law) and a filing made at the BLM (FLPMA requirement).

The first year your Location Notice suffices for your public record and the first year maintenance fee filing at the BLM suffices for your FLPMA filing.

 

The federal mining claims year ends on August 31 so if you located your claim before September 1st you will still have to pay or submit a small miners certificate.

If you submitted a small miner's waiver certificate at the BLM before September 1st you will need to record an Notice of Intent to Hold Mining Claim with the County Recorder before your State mandated deadline.*

A copy of that Intent to Hold must be filed along with the $10 fee per claim at the BLM State office on or before December 30 of the same year.**

* In Nevada it appears that the State recording deadline is November 1st.

** That's December 30th - December 31st is a fail that will lose your claim.

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Notice of Intent to Hold

A Notice of Intention to Hold (NOI) the mining claim(s)/site(s) may be filed in the following circumstances:

  • The BLM has issued a decision granting a deferment of assessment work
  • It is the first year you have located your claim, and a small miner waiver has been filed for the upcoming year (assessment work is not required the first year of location)
  • A small miner waiver has been filed on a tunnel or mill site claim (assessment work is not required on mining sites)
  • The maintenance fee has been paid for the current year, and a small miner waiver is being filed for the upcoming assessment year (switching from paying maintenance fee to filing as a small miner)

There is not a BLM form available to use to file a Notice of Intention to Hold (NOI) the mining claim(s)/site(s).  Claimants may use forms available through other states (forms may be changed to indicate state in which the claim is located) such as:

or create a form that meets the state and federal requirements. The NOI form must state:

  • BLM serial number(s) and claim name(s)
  • Change in mailing address of the claimant(s)
  • Statement as to why assessment work is not required
  • Signature of claimant(s) or their designated agent(s)

 

The Notice of Intention to Hold (NOI) the mining claim(s)/site(s) along with a $10 per claim processing fee must be received in the BLM office by December 30 in the calendar year in which the assessment work requirement would have been due.

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  • 4 years later...

I am not familiar with an NOI to "hold" a claim, so if Nevada requires one just to hold the claim I cannot advise.

Much depends on the land classification; is it Federal or State land? If it is State land I cannot advise you in regard to Nevada since my experience is with California State land.

But if it is Federal Domain, Federal regulations prevail. Federal regulations speak to the issue of assessment work that is performed annually, or money paid in lieu of the actual work. There is no Federal NOI required to "hold" a claim on Federal Domain, and as Chris rightly pointed out, there is no Federal form for this purpose, this should speak volumes.

Having been down this road in regard to Federal Land I would adamantly advice you to not file a NOI (Notice Of Intent). Any Notice Of Intent is designed for large operations, such as mining companies that employ heavy equipment and will disturb a lot of surface area; It is not meant as a requirement to just hold a claim, that is what your yearly assessment work does, it assures that you will hold the claim.

If you are a small scale miner a Notice Of Intent is not required and will only result in the NOI being the trigger that will require a Plan Of Operations, and then the real regulations will kick in in the form of an Environmental Impact Studies, reclamation permits, as well as other land and water agency requirements. So, long story short is, if you are a small scale miner on Federal Domain and will move less than the agency required amount of material, you do not need an NOI. To try to file one will open a can of worms that is better left closed.

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I think a "Notice of Intent" (NOI) that Jim is referring too is different than a "Notice of Intent to Hold Mining Claim"  (Probably incorrectly referred to as NOI?)

As Clay stated for the first year of location: "The federal mining claims year ends on August 31 so if you located your claim before September 1st you will still have to pay or submit a small miners certificate.

If you submitted a small miner's waiver certificate at the BLM before September 1st you will need to record an Notice of Intent to Hold Mining Claim with the County Recorder before your State mandated deadline.*

A copy of that Intent to Hold must be filed along with the $10 fee per claim at the BLM State office on or before December 30 of the same year" 

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Yes Harry, I had thought that the designation might just be an error in terminology. That is why I tried to make the distinction between Federal and State. For all I know Nevada may use the wording the OP wrote about and the state of Nevada may require what they call an NOI for the state's part in the claim recording process after the initial claim is filed with the county recorder.

As  far as an NOI for Federal purposes goes, I consider it a dangerous practice for a small scale miner to file one. In my political mining endeavors I have always tried to discourage the erroneous idea that small scale miners have to file and NOI.

In writing this I went to the state of Nevada website here and found this as a brief requirement to file an NOI for both State as well as Federal BLM purposes: 

"When Required................. The surface management regulations (43 CFR 3809) incorporate three levels of operation: • 1) Casual use by operator who does negligible disturbance. No notice or plan required. Need not contact BLM. Does not include use of mechanized earthmoving equipment or explosives • 2) Notice - includes exploration activities that propose disturbance of 5 acres or less. A written notice, including a reclamation cost estimate, must be submitted to the appropriate BLM Field Office 15 days prior to starting operations. A sufficient financial guarantee amount must be approved by and submitted to the BLM prior to the commencement of operations. Effective for 2 years. May be extended for additional 2 years with the submittal of a revised/updated reclamation cost estimate. • 3) Plan of Operations - includes all mining and processing activities and exploration exceeding 5 acres of disturbance. BLM approves plan."

So, it is easy to see that for most, if not all, small scale miners an NOI is not required. It is also important to understand that any requirement for an NOI is not for the purpose of "holding" a claim as the OP asked about, it is for actually working a claim and then only for larger operations than small scale miners employ.

Disclaimer------ I am not an attorney and this is not legal advice. It is solely mining requirements as I understand them. 

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The Notice of Intent to Hold is a Federal requirement Jim.

The Notice of Intent to Hold is not unique or required by any state laws but each state sets out the due date and process for recording this Federal requirement in their state.

Federal and state laws require an annual public record be made every year you intend to keep a mining claim. The Notice of Intent to Hold is just one of the several different ways to meet that annual requirement. Which notice is required for your annual record is determined by your circumstances. Even if you pay the BLM maintenance fee a public record still has to be made at the county recorder's office.

nvchris outlined when one is required under federal law. Here the scoop for the NOITH process from the BLM Federal regulations.

 
Quote

 

§ 3835.33 What should I include when I submit a notice of intent to hold?

When you submit a notice of intent to hold as required in § 3835.31(d), you must include the following:

(a) An exact legible reproduction or duplicate of a letter or other notice with signatures of one or more of the claimants or their agent that states your intention to hold the mining claims or sites for the calendar year in which the assessment year ends, and that you filed or will file a notice of intent to hold in the county where the claim is located;

(b) If applicable:

(1) A copy of a BLM decision granting a deferment of the annual assessment work;

(2) A copy of a pending petition for deferment of the annual assessment work including the date you submitted the petition; or

(3) Any other documentation in the notice of intent to hold supporting why you are filing a notice of intent to hold instead of an assessment work filing;

(c) The name and, if available, the BLM serial number of the mining claim or site;

(d) Any known changes in the mailing addresses of the claimants; and

(e) A processing fee for each mining claim or site affected.

 

This is different than an NOITO (Notice of Intent to Operate) submitted to the land management agency when you require clarity as to whether your mining operation requires a plan of operation. Two very different Notice of Intents.

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Thank you Clay, I was not aware of a Federal NOI to "hold". Your post makes it clear that the Federal NOI to hold is a part of what I always considered the annual assessment process which requires either work or payments in lieu of annual work accomplished. I humbly stand corrected, but still stand by a NOI for small scale miners not being needed for working their claims.

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