Nevada Prospecting On Private Land With Permission

[Lead Detector]

11 minutes ago, Clay Diggins said:

More than 90% of landowners in the U.S. do not have mineral rights on their property. If you asked them most would say "of course I own the minerals

That is exactly what I have always heard to be true, and is exactly why I asked this question.  Unfortunately trying to do something legit now days is getting so complicated, it's like trying to understand the tax code. I can't tell you how much I appreciate people like @Clay Digginshelping out a new addict like myself figure these things out.  Thank you sir

[Steve Herschbach]

42 minutes ago, Clay Diggins said:

The land in question is in a very productive historical and current mining district and has been under mineral lease to a large mining company in the past. It's a purchased property - It's never been claimed and the original patent was not mineral related.

Is it? I saw nothing about that in the post. Whatever, consider me properly chastised. 

[Clay Diggins]

6 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Is it? I saw nothing about that in the post. Whatever, consider me properly chastised. 

Lead shared the location with me privately. I checked the land status. There was no way you could know that. No need to feel chastised for what you don't know. I certainly didn't intend to chastise anyone.

But that's really the point. If you don't know it's better to find out before you go. Lead did the right thing and I'm pretty sure he has more confidence now. Confident, informed prospectors are 32.8% more successful and at least 13.2% more attractive.

[Lead Detector]

3 minutes ago, Clay Diggins said:

at least 13.2% more attractive

Just walked passed a mirror, and right before it broke I realized I need to call B.S. on that. The rest of your claims seem pretty accurate though! ?

[Clay Diggins]

1 minute ago, Lead Detector said:

Just walked passed a mirror, and right before it broke I realized I need to call B.S. on that. The rest of your claims seem pretty accurate though! ?

Please don't PM me any pictures you took of yourself in the mirror! I get too many of those already from miners.

((((shudder))))

[Lead Detector]

5 minutes ago, Clay Diggins said:

Please don't PM me any pictures you took of yourself in the mirror! I get too many of those already from miners.

((((shudder))))

I haven't found a camera lense strong enough to handle a selfie yet, so your safe from that ?

[mn90403]

So, I read some of this to my wife and she had a question which I liked.

If you go to this private land you have been given permission to hunt and you find with a metal detector a silver coin, a gold coin and a gold nugget, which ones can you legally keep?

(Now I just thought that each of the states have different laws about lost property.  The finder many not really be entitled to it!  Just like a treasure ship.)

How deep are surface rights vs subsurface?  This kinda gets back to the lode vs placer claim rights.

[Lead Detector]

7 minutes ago, mn90403 said:

Now I just thought that each of the states have different laws about lost property.  The finder many not really be entitled to it!  Just like a treasure ship

I just looked in my law books under lost property. section 1, paragraph 3, it clearly  states "FINDERS KEEPERS, LOSER WEEPERS" . ?

[Clay Diggins]

1 hour ago, mn90403 said:

So, I read some of this to my wife and she had a question which I liked.

If you go to this private land you have been given permission to hunt and you find with a metal detector a silver coin, a gold coin and a gold nugget, which ones can you legally keep?

(Now I just thought that each of the states have different laws about lost property.  The finder many not really be entitled to it!  Just like a treasure ship.)

_________________________

How deep are surface rights vs subsurface?  This kinda gets back to the lode vs placer claim rights.

Different states do treat lost, stolen or abandoned property differently.

In this particular situation the owners bought the property without any reservations (lock, stock and barrel). In other words they own anything found on the property even though it was originally lost or abandoned. Stolen property is a different story for obvious reasons.

That makes it pretty simple. Anything on the property that wasn't stolen belongs to the owners. If they give you permission to search for and keep the stuff you find then it becomes your property. So you could keep the nugget and the coins unless they were known to be stolen. I know of no exceptions in any law to that principle.

_______________________

Surface rights are the rights to beneficial use of the surface (agriculture, roads, buildings etc.) and for physical support for real estate. Surface rights don't include any minerals.

Valid placer and lode claimants have exclusive ownership of ALL the locatable minerals found within their claim boundaries. The rights of placer and lode claimants to any and all minerals found on their claims are equal.

A placer can not be located over a lode claim. A lode claim can only be located over a placer with the knowledge and permission of the placer owner and even then only if a lode deposit has been discovered within the boundaries of the placer claim. In that situation the new lode claim replaces the placer claim within the lode claim's boundaries.