Prospectors Research Tools

[Clay Diggins]

Prospector's Research Tools

I haven't been around much this summer and with the desert prospecting season just starting it's a good time to show off what I did this long hot summer. I have been working with a few friends on a new non-profit organization to give you a single place for all your land research.

The result is MyLandMatters.Org. This is the gateway to your land information repository. Maps, books, tutorials, community resources and quality, easy-to-access information about the land around you.

No ads, No memberships, No log-in required.

This past spring while sitting around with some friends we came to the conclusion that most of the important and useful things that we want to know about the land around us was difficult to locate and tough to understand. Despite the many sources of information there was no single place to find the information available.

We decided we could do something about that. We agreed to put our time and energy into creating a single place that anyone could find the answers to questions about the land.

It's a big project. It has taken a lot of work, learning and resources to get things started. But after six months of long days, and more than a few nights, the Land Matters repository is ready for you to use.

Land Matters is all about the land. You can find Land Status Maps, Active Mining Claims Maps (with live direct links into the current LR2000 claims database), A great collection of mining books, Land Laws, Geology books and maps, Forest Travel Plans and a whole lot more.

Land Matters is for land users. Our collections are guided by community input. That's you. Let us know what kind of material you would like to find in our Library or a particular map you would like to see. Help us build Land Matters to best serve the community.

We've already got a lot of things that prospectors have been asking for - the claims maps alone were almost universally requested. Land Matters isn't just for prospectors and miners. But you can help prioritize our efforts and drive the content of Land Matters. Prospectors now have a unique opportunity to help guide and build an information resource designed by prospectors and for prospectors.

We are just getting started filling the Library but there will be hundreds of books, maps and items added in the next few weeks. We've even got a Newsletter so you can get regular updates about new additions to the Land Matters repository.

Check it out and let me know what you think. Here are a few good places to start:

Tutorials - the current focus is on understanding Land Status.
Maps - We all like maps and we've got some you will love.
Library - search for something.

Heavy Pans
Barry & Leigh

 

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[SLNugget]

Thanks Oregon Viking. Even little bits help, this isn't a high dollar organization so we really appreciate whatever anyone can do to keep us up and running.

We've been selling some of our mining and geology books on eBay to help pay the bills too. Doesn't bring in a lot of money but it helps.

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Barry

Barry, can you let us know when you ha e books or maps listed on Ebay? I like books a lot.

 

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[Clay Diggins]

Sure Stan, If you have anything in particular you are interested in I'll look around and see if we have it.

 

[Maitland]

Hey Clay,

You periodically mention the statistics on changes in claims from BLM update to the next BLM update. Is there any way that this data could be somehow available on My Land Matters, perhaps separated by each state? I, personally, would find it very interesting to see how many claims were created or forfeited in my area and which ones they are/were and their location. Also, is there any reason (that you can think of) in regard to why 2,710 claims were dropped? There was talk of a big mineral withdrawal here in the Black Hills, but last I heard they pushed the idea back until 2017, I haven't heard of any other big withdrawals around the country though... just curious!

Thanks,
Maitland

 

[Clay Diggins]

Hey Clay,

You periodically mention the statistics on changes in claims from BLM update to the next BLM update. Is there any way that this data could be somehow available on My Land Matters, perhaps separated by each state? I, personally, would find it very interesting to see how many claims were created or forfeited in my area and which ones they are/were and their location. Also, is there any reason (that you can think of) in regard to why 2,710 claims were dropped? There was talk of a big mineral withdrawal here in the Black Hills, but last I heard they pushed the idea back until 2017, I haven't heard of any other big withdrawals around the country though... just curious!

Thanks,
Maitland

We are working on revamping and upgrading the entire mining claims system. This is a BIG project that involves the BLM data experts as well as a LOT of our time. The new system may take awhile to be ready but it will include complex statistics analysis as part of the many new features. That part of the project will come online in stages.

As we will be bringing in historical claims mapping soon so it will be possible to do a state by state or area wide analysis, like your request. We will announce those new tools and have tutorials about how to get the most out of them as soon as we can.

In the meantime if you have a particular comparison statistic you would like to see let us know and we can post the numbers here.

There are more than 378,000 claims in the western Public Land states. 2,710 claims lost is a very small change. The 2,710 is the difference between last month and this month. There were probably a lot more claims lost than 2,710 but a boatload of new claims were made too.

These numbers are more reflective of seasonal changes and how current the BLM is on updating their local files. They are only an indicator of activity - not the actual number of claims made or abandoned.

Mineral closures don't significantly affect the totals. Just because an area is closed to mineral entry doesn't mean the claims already there are closed. The closure just prevents new claims from being made during the period of the closure. Mineral closures do expire pretty regularly and those expirations do sometimes cause a lot of new claims to be made locally but even those don't significantly change the national numbers.

This was a slow month, wait until next November and you will see much bigger changes.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

Ruby and I will be spending the next few days at Stanton/Rich Hill. If you are in Stanton over the next few days stop by and say HI! We will be across from the office.

We've got several large Land Matters projects that will be coming online starting next week. I'll write more when we return.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

Mining Claims Maps Updated!

Well a weekend away turned into two weeks of work. A guy's got to make a living.
I'm back for the time being but while I was working this job the chores have been piling up. It's going to be a busy week getting caught up.

Thanks to all the folks who visited us in Stanton. It was nice to meet some of the Land Matters users. What a nice bunch of folks! We had some great conversations and met some really nice people.

Just wanted to let everyone know that the Mining Claims Maps were updated yesterday as they were at the first of the month too. We are updating those claims maps twice a month now. We hope to have daily updates before the year is out.

We've got some really big Land Matters mapping projects in the works. British Colombia mining and Forest Motor Vehicle Use maps and plans are being created as well as a very large Forest information project that may surprise you.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

June 1, 2015 Mining Claims update ready

The latest Mining Claims updates are live.

Overall the total number of claims dropped by about 1600 from the May 15 total. Remember that's the total of all claims. Many new claims were made too but this time the closed claims outnumber the new claims.

Wyoming lost a total of 1600 lode claims.

Some pretty big changes in California claims this week too. California Lode claim totals dropped by 442 claims and California Placer claim totals by 217 claims. California has been a lot slower than the other State offices to update their claim files so most of these are from last September.

We are now getting claims updates direct from the BLM on the 2nd and the 16th of each month. They make a copy of their databases on the 1st and the 15th of each month and email us a notice the following day when they are loaded to the secure server. It takes us about a day to process their huge data dump into something usable so the updates to Land Matters come on the second or third and the 17th or 18th of each month. Holidays can mess up that schedule.

You can always know how up to date the LR2000 mining claims mapping is by getting information on a claim section. The information returned will have the time of the last update in the last column - like this:



More soon!

Heavy Pans

 

[KevinInColorado]

How did Colorado fair in the last update?

 

[Clay Diggins]

How did Colorado fair in the last update?

Not much change there Kevin. 13 fewer Lode claims and 6 new Placer claims.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

Mining Claims Maps Updated!

Yep it's that time again. The Land Matters BLM LR2000 Mining Claims Maps have been updated to June 15th 2015.

We update all the claims State's twice a month. This weeks update shows 170 fewer claims nationwide:

• 96 fewer Placer Claims
• 72 fewer Lode Claims

It may seem quiet over at Land Matters but we are hard at work on completing some big projects. Soon we will be able to bring some mapping and resources that have been long requested by professional Miners as well as Surveyors and Academics. We are going well beyond what has ever been offered with any map system - including the government's.

Stay Tuned!

Heavy Pans

 

[fowledup]

Got a question for ya or curious on your opinion on a trend I'm noticing in my area. I've been doing quite a bit of foot work on the recently closed claims in my area and what I'm finding is most were overfillings. The vast majority have active claims in place, with much older location dates, very few have been open to location. I know the BLM is not sending notices so I'm curious as to whats going on and why folks seem to be correcting their wrongs.

 

[SLNugget]

My opinion is that people are becoming more educated about the mining laws and due diligence attached to filing a legal claim. Forums such this and websites such as LandMatters have made people more aware of the intricacies of mining claims. My .02.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Got a question for ya or curious on your opinion on a trend I'm noticing in my area. I've been doing quite a bit of foot work on the recently closed claims in my area and what I'm finding is most were overfillings. The vast majority have active claims in place, with much older location dates, very few have been open to location. I know the BLM is not sending notices so I'm curious as to whats going on and why folks seem to be correcting their wrongs.

We see a lot of overclaiming in known gold areas especially when those areas have easy highway access. Very rarely do you see as much in really hard to reach areas. I think that's a good indication of two types of "prospectors" that are often found in these easy access areas.

The first, and most common overclaimer, is what we call the claims monger. These people make a living by making paper claims and selling them to greenhorns. They could care less if there is already a claim located where they claim because they have no intent to mine. This is way more common that most people realize. As in hundreds of claims a week during the season. This amounts to many many thousands of dollars wasted by "prospectors" who really want to believe that if they pay several thousands of dollars for a "claim" they can bypass all that bothersome stuff of doing the research on land status and mineralization and digging and panning and digging again. Often these greenhorns know so little about what a claim really is that they believe they have a valid claim because they have paperwork from the BLM or the County Recorder or both. Of course an overclaim can have all those things and still be as bogus as a three dollar bill. The claims mongers count on that ignorance, that's the basis of how they make a living. Customers who would rather believe than do the work to educate themselves spell big money in the world of claims mongers.

The second type of overclaiming is most common near camping and recreation areas. These claims are made by recreational prospectors who find a little gold near their campsite or favorite 4x4 trail, don't see any signs telling them they can't prospect, so they get dreams of big gold and make a claim right where they like to pan. This type of overclaimer never does any real land status research because they believe it must be the claim owners responsibility to keep them from prospecting. This type of overclaimer collects "common knowledge" that supports their theory that other claims aren't valid. Stuff like "if the paperwork isn't on every post the claim is invalid" or worse yet "if they don't mine it they don't have a valid claim" or "the BLM controls claiming and I have a paper from the BLM making my claim valid". Sometimes this type of overclaimer refuses to be educated but many of them when educated about the real facts of claims will do the right thing and drop the overclaim. Some of these overclaimers go on to be successful miners.

In either case gold market forces have a big influence on overclaiming. When the price of gold is rising and in the news overclaiming becomes extreme. When the gold market is stagnant and gets no press, like now, the number of overclaims goes down. The claims mongers can't cover the annual costs of keeping a big inventory of paper claims when there are no buyers. Without new greenhorns being excited about tales of gold profits on the tube you don't get as many eager newcomers.

Thanks Stan! I'd like to think the efforts of Land Matters and others do pay off in better educated prospectors. We do have some recent evidence that this has been true in a few cases. Your theory probably applies mostly to the recreational overclaimer though.

I know several of the big claims mongers and in general they don't let morals or knowledge get in the way of making a profit. They know we keep an eye on their activities and I personally often call them on their lies. It takes a special breed of human to make a profit off others ignorance and greed. That breed only concern themselves with their own comfort. Luckily the recent fee hikes are making them very uncomfortable. At least something good is coming out of the new excessive claims maintenance fees.

The number of claims go up and down seasonally. The vast majority of claims are lode claims for hardrock deposits. There are scams taking place there too but very little overclaiming. Most of those lode claims are made by junior miners and exploration companies that offer stock in their companies. If they try to do the overclaim scam the SEC comes down hard and fast, investors in the mining industry do their research unlike greenhorns.

When a greenhorn buys an overclaim from a claims monger they have no legal recourse. Mining claims are transferred by quitclaim deed. That quitclaim only states that the seller is transferring their interest in the mining claim. Even if they have no legal interest in the claim it's up to the claims buyer to do the research to determine just what is being legally transferred. The greenhorn who thought they could take a shortcut to a valid claim ends up holding the bag because it was their duty to do their due diligence research before buying. Yep the same research they would have had to do to make their own claim.

Heavy Pans

 

[Oregon Viking]

^^That^^ is good information. I'am looking at claims on the Sixes river and Land Matters is going to be a necessary tool Now, the Coquille Indian Tribe has acquired 3200 acres in the Sixes area, will that show up on Land Matters? They have already stated that it will be for tribal use....including logging. Coquille tribe regains cultural lands in Curry County

 

[Clay Diggins]

^^That^^ is good information. I'am looking at claims on the Sixes river and Land Matters is going to be a necessary tool Now, the Coquille Indian Tribe has acquired 3200 acres in the Sixes area, will that show up on Land Matters? They have already stated that it will be for tribal use....including logging. Coquille tribe regains cultural lands in Curry County

The Coquille Indian Tribe purchased private lands. Those lands are still private and not open to prospecting or location. The only thing that changed was the owner. Those lands show as private (no color) on Land Matters maps and will still show as private now that they have been sold. The land is not federally managed nor is it part of any native American reservation.

Land Matters gets it's Land Management records from the BLM and hosts them on our own server. The BLM are the record keeper for all the Public Lands. We update those maps as changes occur. The latest update to the Land Status maps was in March of this year if I remember right. As soon as any land status changes we are notified by the BLM and update our own maps. It is the most current and accurate information available to the public.

Heavy Pans

 

[winners58]

the state of Oregon is saying that you cant mine on a stream that is a border of a reservation but also any land wholly owned by a tribe.
here's a map you can zoom in on Sixes river, the tribal owned lands show up in red.
map of Oregon prohibited mining areas

 

[Clay Diggins]

Private land has always been off limit to open prospecting. It doesn't matter if it's owned by natives or not. It's not an "Indian" thing it's a private property thing.

Heavy Pans

 

[benny]

Does this apply to rivers? If so, does that mean that the tribal rights extend into private property on the other side of river? Even if it were just a stream, the property line would be mid-channel. Can you provide a link where it states this?

 

[Clay Diggins]

Does this apply to rivers? If so, does that mean that the tribal rights extend into private property on the other side of river? Even if it were just a stream, the property line would be mid-channel. Can you provide a link where it states this?

Really? You want a link to show you that other people's private property isn't yours?

From Oregon Revised Statutes:

§ 164.015¹
Theft described
A person commits theft when, with intent to deprive another of property or to appropriate property to the person or to a third person, the person:
(1) Takes, appropriates, obtains or withholds such property from an owner thereof;

§ 164.055¹
Theft in the first degree
(1) A person commits the crime of theft in the first degree if, by means other than extortion, the person commits theft as defined in ORS 164.015 (Theft described) and:
(a) The total value of the property in a single or aggregate transaction is $1,000 or more;

Oregon State Constitution:

Section 18.
Private property shall not be taken for public use.

Oregon Revised Statutes

§ 307.010¹
Definition of real property and land:

(b) Real property includes:
(A) The land itself, above or under water;
(B) All buildings, structures, improvements, machinery, equipment or fixtures erected upon, above or affixed to the land;
(C) All mines, minerals, quarries and trees in, under or upon the land;
(D) All water rights and water powers and all other rights and privileges in any way appertaining to the land;

I hope that helps?

 

[Clay Diggins]

Mining Claims Maps Updated to July 1, 2015!

The BLM was slow getting this claims data uploaded to their secure servers but we hustled and got it reformatted and updated for you.

You can find those updated Mining Claims Maps for each of the mining states only on Land Matters.

We just now finished proofing those maps so I don't have any numbers on the claim number changes yet but you will see those changes on the maps.

I hope everyone gets some great gold this 4th!

Heavy Pans