I do this for a living so I will try to give you some insight into how I go about researching property status. There have been several good suggestions on this thread but they are bits and pieces of the whole answer. The problem with that is without the whole picture of the land status you could get your parts in a wringer pretty quick.
There is a legal standard to ensure you can go on any particular piece of land. That legal standard is
Due Diligence. If you haven't performed your due diligence before entering land to prospect you don't have a legal right to proceed. Without prior research you leave yourself open to lawsuits or criminal charges for trespassing or even theft.
Luckily due diligence is a fairly simple process. If the land (and minerals) are privately owned you just need to contact the landowner and get written permission to prospect or mine their property. As several people have pointed out you can find out who owns any particular piece of property from the County Tax assessor. If the land is State owned you are in most cases SOL without a contract with the State. These can be had in most states but the cost will be high and the process slow. In both of these circumstances you need written permission before you can go on the land to prospect.
If the land is public land (federal) it gets a little more difficult but all the information you need is freely available. Lucky for you all valuable minerals in public land open to location are available to you. That's many millions of acres all across the west with many valuable mineral discoveries ready for you to locate. Here is the process I use to figure out just what public land is open to prospecting and location:
1. Determine if the land is public. I've made a
Land Status map for each of the western states to help you with that. Just zoom into your area of interest and if the land is managed by either the BLM or the Forest Service you have passed the first test. If the land is managed by the BOR, State, DOD, USFW or another agency your odds are pretty slim.
2. Download the Master Title Plat (MTP) for your area of interest. The MTP is the federal governments map of land status within a Township, it's what they use to describe any restrictions on the public lands. The MTP will show you the legal status of all the Public Lands within the Township you are researching. There is a link to download the MTP on that same
Land Status Map. MTPs can be a little intimidating for a first time user so
we put together some tutorials and videos to help those who are new to land status research.
It's important not to skip the MTP research. Just knowing there is public land and maybe no mining claims does not mean you can legally prospect or make a claim. You need to study the MTP for mineral withdrawals and prior rights. A lot of money and time is wasted every year by people skipping this step. The County Recorder and the BLM will gladly take your money for a claim and then declare it closed months or even years later. They will not refund your money and they may bring criminal charges if you mined the area while you thought you had a right to mine there. Due Diligence.
3. Look for current mining claims. If there is already a mining claim there you can not prospect or make a claim. Although you can camp, hunt, swim, picnic or recreate on another person's mining claim if you prospect or take minerals you are committing a crime. Due Diligence.
I help provide
up to date claims maps based on the BLM's database of active claims. Those claims maps on Land Matters also show where the public lands are and show the Public Land Survey System that is used to determine the location of all federal lands. You won't find those features on any other claim maps. No map is more current than the Land Matters claims maps.
Once you determine the claim status for the BLM claims mapping there are two very important steps left:
First you need to obtain any current mining claim location notices and maps from the County Recorders office and you need to check for new claims on the ground, in your area of interest. The County Recorder offices are linked to on the
Land Matters Claim Maps. Some Counties now have those location records available online while others may require a phone call or a visit to get those notices and maps. It depends on the County as to just how easy it will be to get those location notices and maps but this is a crucial step in performing your due diligence (keeping your parts out of that wringer). Once you have a copy of the original notice and map you will have a very good idea of where other claims may be located in the Section(s) you are interested in.
It's important to understand that the BLM does not provide maps or exact locations and claims are made on the ground and recorded at the county, the BLM filing is informational only. That's why the BLM puts you on notice on all their claims information:
That gets the BLM off the hook if you rely on their information. Do not rely entirely on information from the BLM, always check the County Recorder. Due diligence.
The last step is to put boots on the ground and check for new stakes and location notices. A mining claimant has 90 days before they have to make their claim public so relying entirely on county records and the BLM still doesn't mean there isn't a current active claim where you want to prospect. Look closely for stakes and location notices
before you prospect. It's not the claim owners responsibility to make sure you know they have made a claim - it's your responsibilty to check for new stakes and location monuments.
In combination with all the other steps above you will now have done your due diligence and have a right to prospect those public lands that you now know are open to location. If you find valuable minerals you can make a mining claim for very little money and have your own gold mine.
These are the steps I use. None of these steps can be left out if you are doing your required due diligence. They don't have to be done in this particular order, I'm just presenting them in the order I find most efficient for my use. I've made quite a few tools available to prospectors to use that I myself have found useful through years of experience. There are other tools available from other sources, many of those sources aren't as up to date or as accurate as the tools I've made but with some effort I'm sure other's have had success with those tools. It's not all about the tools - it is about determining the land status
before you put boots on the ground. Due Diligence.
The Federal government gives away valuable minerals on the public lands open to location. Doing your Due Diligence research is a small price to pay to make claim to your discovery. Miners have been following these steps for more than 140 years, it's just one of the skills a successful miner must learn. Just about anywhere else you travel on earth someone else owns the minerals and prospecting or mining costs big money if it's even permitted. Learn the process to discover public lands open to location and you are well on your way to becoming a real miner for just the time it takes to learn the process. Isn't freedom great? Free minerals for the finding!
Heavy Pans
