Nevada Prospecting On Private Land With Permission

[Redz]

20 hours ago, Clay Diggins said:

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.

Just curious why you would pay to file a new claim over ground you already hold the rights to? The placer claim would allow you to prove the lode. Only reason I can see is if you are developping a subsurface mine

[Clay Diggins]

42 minutes ago, Redz said:

Just curious why you would pay to file a new claim over ground you already hold the rights to? The placer claim would allow you to prove the lode. Only reason I can see is if you are developping a subsurface mine

Good logical question Redz.

If a lode deposit is discovered on a placer claim AND the claim owner wishes to go to patent the lode deposit will be excluded from the placer patent unless it has been claimed and paid for.

Also if a placer claim owner gives permission to a non owner to prospect the placer claim and the non owner discovers a lode deposit the non owner can claim a new lode claim. The new lode claim displaces the pre-existing placer claim within the new lode boundaries. That might seem like a far fetched possibility until you consider all the prospecting clubs that permit their members to freely prospect their placer claims. I encourage all prospecting clubs to put a clause in their member contracts to avoid this situation.

Interestingly the only reason for all this complexity of placer versus lode is because a lode patent costs twice as much per acre as a placer patent. Lode= $5.00 per acre,  Placer = $2.50 per acre. The government would lose $2.50 an acre if known lodes were patented within a placer patent. That was a lot of money in 1872 when Congress set the fees. Congress hasn't changed the acre patent fees since 1872.

Here is a link to the placer claim patent law.

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/30/37

[Redz]

Shame that patents are no longer being processed, but that is a separate topic. Can see that you would need to be careful who is allowed to prospect on your claim.

Thanks for the info