A little free education for those who don't have the experience or knowledge yet to find and locate their own claim.
Without a verifiable proof of discovery a 20 acre placer claim is worth approximately $260.
Coincidentally that amount is equal to the $212 filing fee plus the costs of stakes and County Recording to make your own claim. He's a simple fact for you - the vast majority of claims have exactly zero (none) gold. Most claims weren't even made for gold deposits.
A group like GRE (Gold Rush Expeditions) will gladly sell you a
small 20 acre lode claim (on sale now for only $21,000) made on a former lead prospect. They claim you could mine gold there but with just a little investigation on Land Matters I see that they actually have two lode claims there by the same name - both located in November of last year and those are the only claims for miles around. Why? because those claims are made on a minor lead deposit (not gold) and there is no profit in mining lead. No profit lead mineralization = no mining claims.
Notice that location date? The lead claim they would like you to believe has free milling gold on it is nearly 11,000 feet high in a remote area of the Rocky Mountains. "Road" access is through private property.
How much sampling do you think they did on those two lode claims while filming their commercial at 11,000 foot elevation in mid November? Do you think they really accomplished a 10 foot deep shaft, trench or adit as is required to make a lode claim in Colorado?
I found all of that out in about 15 minutes but you know what - someone is going to buy GRE's story whole hog and negotiate a great deal on that claim for about $20,000! Yep and GRE do that same stupid monkey dance about 400 times a year. And here is a little secret - no one at GRE is a miner or even knows how to sample or mine the claims they sell.
I could give you a list of a half dozen people in every mining state that are doing the same thing as GRE but I won't bother because you can look them up on Craigslist, eBay and ICMJ. The plain fact of the matter is a good paying claim isn't going to be for sale for less than the value of the minerals minus the cost of production.
I have a friend here in Arizona who mines with 3 partners. They've got about 3 million tied up in equipment and infrastructure and their claim produces about 4 - 5 pounds of gold every three days that all four of them are mining. They make a profit and have for the last 7 years working part time. You want to know how much they would sell their claim for? Not going to happen - their children and grandchildren will still be mining that deposit in 50 years. You couldn't offer enough money to get them to sell. When you own your own "Bank" full of gold money you would be foolish to sell it for paper money. Miner's who have done the research and work to find good paying ground are not foolish.
On the other hand you could find plenty of other part time miners who break even most months but had a good month a few years ago who would sell you their claim for "only" $15,000 but only if they have gotten tired of wearing themselves out in hopes of someday doing better than breaking even. I could hook you up with a few dozen of those claims with good road access, flat camping area and some beat up equipment thrown in to the deal. The claim owners would walk away with a profit for the first time since they made the claim and you could spend your last days beating up rock, your equipment and your body hoping the "big one" is just a few yards away. There are lots of almost break even prospects out there.
Even more common are the $1,500 to $5,000 claims that have never even paid enough to cover costs. Those are available by just showing up with cash in hand and asking around the gold fields. You could buy a dozen a day in season and see a bunch of happy "miners" walking away with smiles while they shake their heads in amazement.
If you want a good producing claim you will need to find a good gold deposit on land open to location. Those do exist. There are millions of square miles of mineralized lands open to location so your choices are nearly endless. To do that you will do exactly the same amount of work you will need to do to verify a claim for sale but it will only cost you $260 when you do make your discovery. Cheaper, more fun, better chance of a return on your time, reduced investment (better ROI) and you would know exactly what you have rather than relying on a claim sellers honesty.
If you really want to throw good money away on your dreams why not consider my Gold Magnet (pat pending). You just drag the gold magnet along behind you and at the end of the day scrape off the ounces of gold it collects.
No need for a claim at all and just like buying a claim it's powered only by your hopes and dreams - no batteries or fuel cost! I can't sell on this forum but if I could I'd tell you the fact that the Gold Magnet (pat pending) is only $2,500 dollars making it a real bargain compared to buying an unproven claim for $5,000 or $50,000 dollars. Or you could just mail me $2,500 and avoid the disappointment you will invariably experience when you find there is no good gold on the claim you bought and there is no such thing as a gold magnet.
Heavy Pans
I'd be happy to show you around if you decide to pop in here.
