How To Stake A Mining Claim To Protect Your Gold

When you’ve been out panning for gold and you finally strike it rich, you will want to protect your find. By staking a claim you get the exclusive rights to extract valuable minerals from the ground and to develop the site. These rights are protected by the Mining Law of 1872 and as long as you are 18 years or older and a United States Citizen you can stake as many claims as you want.

Two Types of Mining Claims

The two types of claims below has different regulations mostly regarding the maximum size of your claim.

• Lode Claim

  If you’ve discovered a quartz vein or lode containing gold, a lode claim is what you need. Whenever the gold is inside or stuck to a rock, it belongs to this category.
  Maximum Size for Lode Claims: Length of 1,500 feet along the vein or lode. Width is a maximum of 600 feet, 300 feet on either side of the center line of the vein or lode.

• Placer Claim

  This is where the gold can be found in gravel and sand, for example in a stream. Placer claims are more common than lode claims and most likely what you’ll encounter first.
  Maximum Size for Placer Claims: 20 acres per locator. If you have a friend you two can together as an association locate 40 acres, three of you may locate 60 acres, etc. The maximum area of an association placer claim is 160 acres for eight or more persons, except for In Alaska where the maximum size is limited to 40 acres under State law. For corporations the maximum size is 20 acres per claim. According to BLM “Corporations may not locate association placer claims unless they are in association with other private individuals or other corporations as co-locators”.

Step by Step Guide To Protecting Your Find

1. Do the research

   First of all, you need to ensure that your discovery isn’t located in one of the following areas: National Parks, National Monuments, Indian reservations, most reclamation projects, military reservations, scientific testing areas and most wildlife protection areas (such as Federal wildlife refuges). When you’ve ensured that, you need to check that the area isn’t already claimed. You don’t want to be caught claim jumping!

2. Mark Your Claim

   The next step is to go out and mark your claim. This is required so that other people can see that the area is taken, as well as showing you where you can mine. You should always check with the State authorities before marking your claim as regulations differ from state to state. The most common practice is to mark each corner of your claim with a post, made out of either wood(at least 3.5 inches in diameter), plastic or metal(at least 2 inches in diameter), with a minimum visible height of 3 feet. You can also mark the corners with rock cairns. You start with marking the NE corner of the claim, known as the number 1 corner, where you also post the location notice. Then you mark the other corners, numbered in a clockwise direction.

   The Location Notice should contain the following information: 
   • Date of location on the ground
   • Name of the locator (That’s you!)
   • Name of the claim or site
   • Type of claimor site
   • Acreage claimed
   • Description of the parcel on the ground.

 

3. Take Care of the Paper Work

Copies of the claim documents and location notices must be filed at both the County Clerk’s office and the Bureau of Land Management state office. All this must be completed within 30-90 days of the staking depending on the state. Filing fees must also be paid. The total cost of staking a single claim ranges from $170 to $200 from state to state.

Keeping Your Claim

In addition to the annual fees, you must fulfill requirements of “annual labor” in order to keep the claim. You must basically be able to show that you are actively working the claim or improving the site. If you don’t do this you’ll loose your claim and won’t be able to restake it for one year from the “date of abandonment”. During this time some other prospector may stake a claim at your spot.

Fancy Signs To Keep Prospectors Out

Buy Now at $4.95 – This sign is made of weather resistant aluminum and is bright orange, so it will be hard for other prospectors to miss it.

Buy Now at $4.95 – 11″ x 7.5″ aluminum sign to mark borders and entry points of federal mining claims.

Buy Now at $1.49 – 4″ x 4″ Corner Monument sign for your corner posts. You might want to get four of these!

Related Links

Gold Prospecting 101 – Introduction to Easy and Effective Gold Prospecting
Check Out These Gold Prospecting TV Shows

Thanks to Alaska Mining for letting me use your image.

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