Heads Up For Small Miners

[Clay Diggins]

If you are maintaining your mining claim under a small miner's waiver you should be aware that the required Form (3830-02) due August 31 is not yet available.

Here is a link the official BLM version of the form on their website. As you can see it expired this past April.

https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/3830-002_0.pdf

The BLM is required to renew official forms every three years or the form becomes invalid. (Privacy Act, Paperwork Reduction Act) The currently available 3830-02 Form expired in April of this year. The BLM did put in a request for extension in March of this year but the paperwork never moved forward. In the last week or so the 3830-02 form has been removed from the approval process. It appears it is no longer on the list of BLM forms.

Here are the current results from the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the agency in charge of approving the form.

https://omb.report/search.php?terms=1004-0114

That is where you will see if the required 3830-02 form has been approved. It will be at the very bottom of the list. At present it isn't even listed as a valid form.

Some mining claims have been closed for submitting out of date forms. Technically the form has no value to the user or the BLM until the OMB approves the extension. This is a tricky situation.

The California BLM put a modified 3830-02 in their mining claims packet this year. You wouldn't get one of those unless you requested it. Even though the form hasn't been approved they pasted a "2024" over the top of the "2023" on the expired form. They didn't change the approval date so it's obviously bogus. Some state offices have been suggesting owners just cross out the "2023" and write in "2024". I would not suggest doing that, I won't get into the details here but as you can imagine forgery of federal documents to receive a benefit is frowned upon.

Here's what you need to watch out for with these forms. There is a block of type on the upper left corner and another on the upper right that together show that the form is current and valid. Here's an clipped example I made up of the top of the form with the critical numbers in red.

 

 

 

 

 

If the dates don't reflect the three year extension period (2023 - 2026) it's bogus.  If the form hasn't been approved by the OMB yet it doesn't matter if the numbers match it's bogus.

I've discussed this problem with quite a few worried miners and the only real advice I can give is be prepared to pay the fee???

There may some political and there are certainly some social aspects of the BLM's failure to produce this required form. Please let's respect our host's wishes and keep any discussion about this on the practical and informative side. No politics please.

Barry

 

[MSC]

Clay, thanks.

[Swegin]

I heard from several people who spoke with BLM employee's in Phoenix that they (BLM) will accept the old form.

 

[Don71]

The BLM in the Phoenix office said they will accept the expired form since the new version is not available.

[flakmagnet]

Clay being his usual informative and responsible self.

Thank you for all of us.

[Clay Diggins]

8 hours ago, Don71 said:

The BLM in the Phoenix office said they will accept the expired form since the new version is not available.

Would they give that to you in writing? (That's a rhetorical question - they never put anything in writing)

Phoenix BLM is the same office that actively encouraged claim owners to save money by paying their maintenance fees before the the price was raised last time and then closed the claims that had not paid the full new fees. Phoenix office has one of the worst records when giving out bad information that endangers your claim.

Maybe the better question would be does the required small miners waiver form 3830-02 still exist? The OMB doesn't have the form listed and they are the only agency that approves those forms for use. The BLM doesn't have a valid form available. There is no current control number or approval date.

I smell a rat.

Do whatever you feel is right for yourself. Hopefully this is just the government stumbling over their shoelaces and everything will work out for the best for claim owners.

[paradiceau]

I agree with Clay, if the agency is not willing to put it in writing a verbal opinion or approval from a minion probably won't be honored.  Difficult situation at the moment it seems...  Good luck to those affected!

[Mommaofmany]

I am a new claim owner, and this was the first year I needed to pay the maintenance fee.  I did it online on the MLRS website.  Will that be affected by this form date issue? 

[Clay Diggins]

Welcome Mommaofmany.

If you paid the annual fee this will not affect you or your claim.

The small miner's waiver is for people who own fewer than 10 claims and choose to do their annual labor rather than pay the maintenance fee. The form we are discussing is the required form for those who wish to declare themselves small miners for the upcoming mining year. It doesn't apply to owners who paid the fee.

Since the form is required to qualify as a small miner and yet is not available it leaves small miners with questions about their course of action and little time to resolve those questions, the form is due by August 31.

To be clear....

What happens (or is supposed to happen) when you submit an expired or invalid 3830-02 form is the BLM will send you a 60 day notice to correct the form problem or pay the annual fee. There are more than a few problems with that "solution" too but that's probably for another time.

[Don71]

I sent in the old Small Miners Waiver form and Phoenix office accepted it.
But I will keep watch to see if they post a new form before August 31st.
They are putting us into a bad situation due to their own negligence.

-Don