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How often is it updated, and how accurate is the mining claim Information on land maters? is there a better more accurate resource for checking on active claims? thanks for any info!

I'm going to be in AZ this weekend and I think I've found a good spot that allows for prospecting. Since it's my first time detecting, I wanted to make sure I've done my due diligence. The spot is Saddle Mountain, AZ. General coordinates: 33.445615°, -113.013318° I have verified that this is BLM land, and that it's not a wilderness area, and that it's not within a National Monument. I've checked on landmatters to verify that there aren't any active claims on the area (although there are historic claims, which I hope is a good sign). Is there any other research I need to do? I know there are some petroglyphs on the site, and I'd stay far away from those, but other than that, most of the mountain looks pretty open. BLM maps screenshot Land matters screenshot

As Land Matters does every new mining year we are offering for download our annual mining claims flow diagrams and written explanations of the annual BLM mining claim filing requirements. These filing aids have helped many claim owners wade through the BLM filing requirements. These popular PDF handouts are updated for the upcoming 2021 mining year (beginning September 1, 2020). Feel free to share and post these wherever you wish as long as you don't modify them and keep them intact with their copyright notices. Reminder The federal filing deadline this year for all mining claims is Monday August 31, 2020. Download the Free 2020 Annual Federal Mining Claims Filing Requirements

Hello everybody, im on the search for a load claim or two. In my search I’ve been doing some research on an old mine I know about. It has some promising history, and worth some further investigation The problem is it has a current active claim on it. The same company has owned it for around 30 years, but nothing has been done with it in that time. i can’t figure out why someone would keep a claim that long, and not do anything with it? Possibly an environmental group keeping it from being mined? my question is, doesn’t some kind of work have to be done to keep it valid? thanks for any replies!

Anyone had experience being part of a group that owns claims that allows its members to prospect on? Here in Australia "Little Ripper Gold Inc" has formed a not for profit group that has 4 or 5 claims already and will be using members yearly fee of $100 to buy more. Im told that you Americans have similar setups over there. https://www.facebook.com/FreeGoldCamps/ https://www.facebook.com/groups/LittleRipperGold/

Good mornin' y'all- I have done several hours of solid research this morning about lode staking and I have not found conclusive answers to theae two questions yet. These questions are only for the initial time you actually discover the lode area and place the monument on the diacovery, before sending in any paperwork/filing forms/fees, etc. If you have any experience with these specific areas of lode claim staking here in CA, I would very, very much appreciate any advice, experience, and or details you have to share. Thank you very much for your time, experience, and your help. 1. Does the discovery monument need to have a written/filled-out notice of discovery paper/sign attached to the actual monument or posted anywhere around it on day-1, or, does it simply just have to be a bare monument with no posted notice/wtitten sign? 2. If a written/filled-out notice of discovery paper/sign is required on the center monument at the initial staking of said Lode claim, do I need to list my personal address of residence with my full name posted on the sign? I'd like to maintain whatever privacy I am allowed to keep while also following all of the related rules/regulations/laws. I do not have a separate business set up that I could put on the sign either. Thanks again and have a rockin' day! Kevin

Several of us on this forum belong to clubs. Some of us hunt those claims in addition to others. The thought has occurred to me recently that when we talking about hunting on club claims here that someone in Australia and even New Zealand might not know what we are talking about. When I was in Australia I had a map of the public forests and some were open for detecting and some were not. You could get State information about likely gold spots in addition to previously mined spots. There are thousands and thousands of open acres. If you could hook up with a tour or trainer they could give you the pointy finger about where to go. I was mostly on my own and it showed! haha Just because you don't find gold it is not because it has been over hunted. I'd have to say that most of my time in Victoria I was detecting in spots where there was no dig holes. Bendigo was an exception. My point is that someone can go to open land without being a 'club' member. That can be good and bad in reality. I'm not going to attempt to name all clubs (there are dozens now down from hundreds I think) and how long they have been in existence (Some since the 60s) but it would 'level the playing ground' when we talk about missed nuggets on a club claim vs open land. The largest club in the United States is the Gold Prospectors Association of America. Members pay an annual fee and they are given a directory of club claims. https://www.goldprospectors.org/testpage/GPAAClaimDirectory This is the history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_Prospectors_Association_of_America There is still gold on the GPAA claims. Some claims are not as old as others and some just have missed gold still on them. Some are severely depleted from dry washing and detecting for all of these years. Some of us use the claims as a jumping off spot to look for other gold. My point in bringing it up is to show how much real pressure and detecting there can be on certain spots that once had gold. There are three different clubs claiming land in Gold Basin. Sometimes these club claims bring detectorists together for just a weekend and other times it can be for most of a winter season. Day trippers are frequent. It would be very difficult to estimate the number of detectorists over the years that have swung on any particular patch of club claim. Let's say hundreds on a conservative estimate and thousands on the high end. Fortunately for Gold Basin there has been a lot of gold and also a lot of land to look for it. Each time a new detector comes out then the patch has become a bit more lively again as what has happened with the Z. I've found more nuggets with my Z in Gold Basin than I did with my GPX but many people before me dry washed, sluiced and detected big nuggets with beginning detectors. Club members have been generally good over the years about sharing information. Membership enforcement is spotty so there are 'jumpers' added to the numbers even tho dues are generally under $50 per year. There are many other groups and clubs other than GPAA. Perhaps we should have a thread or a forum that gives some sort of description of different clubs. Maybe one already exists. The clubs exist for the most part on public land. They stake a claim based upon a member knowing and wanting to share that location with others. Otherwise it would be a private claim or private land (like Jason's) just as they have in most of the US, Australia and New Zealand I imagine. There is some discussion now if a 'club claim' is legal under the mining laws. Generally claims are limited in size and number of people or entities. Many club locations are a lease to make access legal. All of this is designed to get as many people as possible to join. Many are non-profit groups. Many club members have abused the land with open dig holes, destroyed access roads and being generally trashy. Some clean up. Each of the clubs have key people who have recently gotten very old and clubs are getting smaller. Oldtimer knowledge is leaving as the numbers dwindle. Many of them have never posted a letter on an internet forum like this one. They were private people. They would never show their gold here. That brings up another idea. Someone should or may go to some of these miners and write a story about each of them. It is kinda like doing stories about the veterans of the wars. Well, this is the beginning ramble. I hope that many of you who have a hankering to ramble about clubs and people tell those stories in this thread to keep their memories alive. This will help us to know who the miners and detectorists were that came before us.

So I'm out at my claims this weekend and see fresh side by side tracks going up the wash. Completely off road, crushing bushes and cactus. I find several dig holes that were not filled in. Then I see them. Parked right smack dab on my corner marker and my location marker. When confronted I get the usual bullshit. I didn't know it was a claim. I said that is my location notice right there. The response is I thought the claim went east. Well there are claims owned by a local club that way. No remorse, no apology and had the stupidity to say that I was an asshole. This turd is from Idaho and says he is a prospector. My ass this dude is a claim jumper and doesn't give a shit about where he hunts. Doesn't care about the land and can give a shit about your mineral rights. Shit bags like this guy really ruin the hobby. I told him it is his responsibility to know the land status before he goes. He says there are so many paper hanger claims. There was just no reasoning with this turd. If you aren't going to respect Arizona land and claims stay the hell out of this state.

My Reno prospecting just recently filed on a placer claim in Pershing county Nevada. Do we have to file a notice of intent to hold? If we do, is it just for the 1st year? Thanks Scott

Just in case any body wants to get real serious, this is available... https://goldcountry.craigslist.org/reb/d/calpine-high-production-gold-mine-in/7083442664.html That sure is some pretty gold.

Hi Forum Not sure if this is the right place for this topic. I’m heading out Arizona way for some gold detecting, flown in from South Africa so I need some guidance.Im looking for a good claims club and BLM land to detect on. I’m visiting Wickenburg area as a starting point. Roadrunners has been suggested by a few friends. BLM land also important and options.If any one can shed some light this would be great.Off the beaten track no worries Thanks and look forward to any help offered

Has anyone come across a good quitclaim deed for transferring ownership of mining claims? This would be for California. Tons of forms on internet but was wondering if anyone found a specific one that worked great. Thanks.

We own several claims in Rye Patch and unfortunately we have witnessed something disturbing. BLM land is in squares next to private land that used to belong to the railroads. The private land for the most part is owned by some of the big mining companies like Newmont Mining. Recently there were several prospectors seen on both claimed land and on the private land owned by Newmont. We have been going to Rye Patch for years and know many of the claim owners. Prospecting on private land or on anothers claim without permission goes against the "code" we miners hold dear. They weren't on our claims (fortunately). We probably should have stopped by and asked if they had permission but we aren't the police and didn't want conflict. I'm posting this here because "claim-jumping" from what I understand is a felony. Perhaps these prospectors had the required permission but if not any gold obtained is basically stealing... Something most of us are very much against. Not sure what to do the next time we see these types of prospectors although if they are on our claims I know very well what we will do. Any advice appreciated.

The BLM just raised mining claim location fees to $40. They also raised the annual maintenance fees to $165. That $165 applies to every 20 acres on a placer claim. These new fees take effect on September 1, 2019 at 12:01 a.m. If you have already paid your maintenance fees for the upcoming mining year you will still need to pony up the extra $10 per claim/20 acres. The BLM is saying they will send you a notice if you owe more than you have already paid. If they don't you still need to pay so I wouldn't be waiting around for that letter in the mail, just be prepared to pay up before September 1. This will give you an idea of how much the annual base maintenance fees per claim/size will be now. 0-20 acre placer millsite, tunnel site or lode claim = $165 20-40 acre placer claim = $330 40-60 acre placer claim = $495 60-80 acre placer claim = $660 80-100 acre placer claim = $825 100-120 acre placer claim = $990 120-140 acre placer claim = $1155 140-160 acre placer claim = $1320 If you have 10 or fewer claims you may be eligible for the small miner's waiver. The fees are the same for the annual small miner filing $15 per claim no matter what size it is as long as you complete $100 worth of work on each claim. You can read the notice announcing these new fees in today's Federal Register.

So with the possibility that i may be moving to New Mexico in a year or so, i have started to delve into researching gold mines and claims in New Mexico. Ive figured out the whole BLM map and claim system fairly well, but what im wondering is, is there anyway to narrow down what spots are claimed. Currently with the BLM system i can get it down to the quarter section, but that is still a very large area. So say there are two 20 acre placer claims in the same quarter section, is there any way for me to know where they are in the quarter section before heading into the field? Preferably online, but it sounds like the local BLM office will be the only place with that info. Since i prospect in Virginia currently, the whole claim system is new to me, but so far seems fairly strait forward, and im already trying to find ground to fringe hunt around active and abandoned claims near where i would be moving. I read the article about how to file a claim in the April 2019 issue of the ICMJ, but like i said that doesnt seem to narrow it down past the quarter section. Thanks for any and all help.

Maybe some of you already know about this and have the phone to support it. I have one of the flip phones that nobody wants to steal, so it really amazes me. On his phone he dials up google earth map and it instantly it brings up the boundaries, acreage and name & address of the owner. It would be fantastic to have the same ap for claims, showing owner and boundaries, no more accidental trespassing.

Here is a claim listed in New Zealand! https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=12188130 Mitchel

Land Matters updated their Mining Claim Maps this past Wednesday. Although the LR2000 has been shut down Land Matters gets their data directly from the main BLM database in Denver. This mining claims update is only current until the gov shutdown on December 21st. We've been updating these maps twice a month for more than 4 years now. There have been some really big changes in Arizona this past month with a lot of ground opening up in some very good areas. A lot of the newly closed claims were old, from the 1930's and later so this isn't just the usual end of year churn. On a related subject the LR2000 went live again today. I guess the new boss told them to flip the switch? It did seem petty to take it down during the shutdown since the servers are already paid for.

Sorry if this was posted somewhere else. It would seem that the state of Alaska is considerably behind on processing new mining claims. Last time I sent in claim forms they were processed within about two months and on the mapper. The last batch that I sent in have not posted yet on the mapper or or been processed yet and it's been about 3 months. I was wondering if anyone else has experienced a delay in claim processing? They are very nice in the office and willing to answer any questions but they seem to be shorthanded.

There are few places left where you can dredge legally in the United States, especially with larger suction dredges. Alaska however is very dredging friendly. I have been updating the Alaska Mining Claims For Sale page and there are several decent dredging claim packages available now at some good prices. If you are looking for a summer long dredging adventure, this is the place to start so check it out.

GPAA Membership. Is it a joke? Are their Claims all worked out? Is it worth $90 to join?

BLM raises fees. Just wanted everyone to know. Steve, please move this topic to a different thread, if not appropriate here. http://www.freerangereport.com/blm-hikes-mining-claim-permit-fees-by-30-percent/

It's that time again. The August 31 deadline to make your required annual mining claims filings is only a month away. As she does every year Ruby has compiled general guidelines and a graphic flow chart to help claim owners understand their annual obligations. If you are confused about the process or just want a refresher review these could help make the process clearer. These are a free download. Feel free to share, distribute or print these out as long as you retain the attribution. General Guidelines Flow Chart Whatever you do don't be late. You will lose your claim if your filings aren't on time. Feel free to ask questions.

EDITED.........For a first timer just doing some experimental nugget hunting would it be worth a GPAA membership for access to the claims or just doing some research and hunting BLM land? Will be in Phoenix visiting a friend after a work trip that ends in Vegas. I am entertaining renting a car instead of flying and trying my luck for nuggets along the way! Thanks...Noah What group/club is best for AZ or NV gold detecting claims??? First time detector prospector looking for a nugget!!! Relic/coin hunter from Florida planning a vacation. Thanks

A review Anyone who uses the BLM LR2000 search function knows it can be a challenge to get meaningful results. Often the service is down but you aren't notified of a problem with the system until you go through the whole complex search process to discover there was an "error". Frustrating at times. Well it appears the BLM decided it was time to change the look and feel of the LR2000 search function. They notified users months ago that they were working on an improved version but they caught a lot of people by surprise when they introduced the NEW! IMPROVED! LR2000 on November 1 and shut down the functions of the OLD! BAD! LR2000 at the same time. Problem was they didn't tell anyone. The old LR2000 still appears to be there and will allow you to do a search. That search returns an error, as mentioned earlier that's not unexpected or uncommon when using the LR2000. I use the LR2000 a lot when I need the most recent information on a land or claim case file. It took me nearly 24 hours after the changeover to get fed up enough with the old LR2000 not working to try the new LR2000 which has been available but not working for the last nine months. I'm hoping the BLM will set up that old LR2000 web address to redirect to the new LR2000 page so others won't have to waste their time beating a dead search system like I did. The old LR2000 was clunky. It reminded me of an old unfamiliar broken down right hand drive truck with a Japanese language repair manual. It was really that awkward and counter intuitive. There were many blogs, manuals and videos devoted to explaining the esoteric mysteries of the BLM's version of public access to public records, I even helped write a few myself. I made good use of the old LR2000 on the days it was working and I was glad to have it when I could get results but it needed fixing. The new LR2000 has a cleaner less intimidating interface with a slightly simpler set of options. I really don't like the "black topo" background the BLM now puts on all their web pages. If you like the black topo theme you are probably going to like the look of these new search pages better than the old ones. The behind the scenes search function has changed a lot from the old LR2000. I tried it on several browsers and three operating systems. I had problems on every browser and system. The Search seems to hang in some circumstances, in others it returns results as quickly as the old LR2000. The actual search itself seems to be slower sometimes. Every browser I tried had problems when it had run a few searches. The searches would eventually hang and several loops would keep the browser so busy it would lock up. That's not something I'm used to experiencing. This is a new system so I'm hoping the BLM will get these glitches out soon. The results of each search now displays in a new interface. Essentially there will be a window frame on the results page with the document displayed inside the frame as a PDF. Like the old LR2000 there are options to download the document in several formats including Excel, PDF and HTML. You can now modify or start a new search from the results page. Land Matters has made an effort to bypass the clunky old LR2000 interface and allow you to directly access any claims BLM serial register page directly with a few clicks on a map. This turned out to be a lot quicker way to get information on claims in a specific area without having to pound through the old LR2000. Being a direct live link to the BLM the information is as current as possible unlike other mapping programs that present static information updated every month or so. When the unannounced changeover in LR2000 search systems happened it broke Land Matters system of direct access. With more than 380,000 mining claims being actively tracked Land Matters had a problem. Claims Advantage Members also get several reports a month. In the last two days Land Matters had released two reports with a combined total of more than 20,000 maps and direct links to a broken LR2000. That's 400,000 missing documents. Sometimes life can be.... interesting. Needless to say I have been busy. It took 24 hours but I deciphered the new LR2000 system, fixed the links to the serial register pages and corrected, compiled and uploaded new member reports. The mining claim serial register pages linked to on the maps load more quickly than the old ones did. If you have any problems with those maps or the Member Reports please let me know. Please try out the new LR2000 and share your experiences here. Try the Mining Claims Maps at Land Matters and marvel at the new search results. If you like the way the map link system works we can add the feature for a lot more types of research. Barry