PROSPECTORS LOUNGE
This section is a little different and the place to post prospecting questions, birthdays, and talk not directly related to other sections of the forum, but still related to gold prospecting. No Political or religious posts will be allowed please and will be deleted by staff
Prospectors Lounge Guidelines
There are just a few rules here and yup I do enforce them and keep an eye on things as best I can. Here are a few guidelines I'd like you to follow if you will be participating here. This forum is not moderated as heavily as the other sections so please do not enter or open a topic if you think you will be offended. If you are at least respond like an adult or we will remove your post as soon as brought to our attention.
Vulgar and abusive language is not welcome here! Heck a cuss word to get a point across is not so bad, but I think you know what I mean.
I will not host public arguments and pissing matches between individuals here so please just don't do it. When it happens the post most times will simply vanish into cyber space.
Political or Religious posts belong in "Off Topic" but surly you can find other forums that host those discussions if it is your thing, I don't think anyone cares if you are Conservative or Liberal when we are out hunting gold nuggets.
You may not use this forum to advertise any other dealer, store, or product without written permission by owner at any time. Used items are allowed in the classified section.
This forum is not responsible for anything said by it's members at any time. This is a public forum and will remain so and although I can and will occasionally zap "bad content" I don't do it often and so far have never permanently banned a person. Also opinions expressed here do not always represent the opinion of the forum's owner!
Guests are welcome to browse the forum and use the information provided by registered members, but you can not post yourself until you are a registered member.
That is pretty much it my fellow Nugget Shooters so enjoy the forum, keep it clean and play nice.
1,795 topics in this forum
-
- 3 replies
- 146 views
-
- 3 replies
- 203 views
-
- 1 reply
- 148 views
-
- 0 replies
- 69 views
-
- 1 reply
- 147 views
-
- 4 replies
- 312 views
-
- 0 replies
- 104 views
-
- 14 replies
- 392 views
-
- 2 replies
- 139 views
-
- 0 replies
- 232 views
-
- 2 replies
- 120 views
-
- 8 replies
- 144 views
-
- 3 replies
- 141 views
-
- 0 replies
- 110 views
-
- 1 reply
- 343 views
-
- 0 replies
- 113 views
-
- 1 reply
- 122 views
-
- 5 replies
- 202 views
-
- 0 replies
- 83 views
-
- 1 reply
- 121 views
-
- 6 replies
- 491 views
-
- 2 replies
- 134 views
-
- 8 replies
- 434 views
-
- 0 replies
- 188 views
-
- 0 replies
- 107 views
.thumb.jpg.de228c0c27d448975f44a927d05cc27a.jpg)
-
Member Statistics
9,607
Total Members550
Most Online
-
Who's Online 2 Members, 0 Anonymous, 10 Guests (See full list)
-
Posts
-
Mapping time for 5000 claims varies depending on the district, the quality (or lack of) a survey and how cooperative the County Recorder's are. Older mining districts take longer because they located claims in relation to a rock, town or roadway which have often moved or been mined over. This particular district I'm just finishing mapping is approaching 4 months of work but the district only dates back to the 1890's. Other's have taken as long as a year or more usually due to politics (California) or underfunded small County Recorder's struggling to do their jobs with the allotted budget. Some County Recorders don't have an online presence so I have to visit those offices in person. Claim density in these well established mining districts approaches 90 mining claims per section or more. My current project covers a little less than 200 square miles. Much of that area is still unsurveyed, like most mining districts. All sections by definition are one square mile (640 acres). In real life mountains rivers and corruption get in the way of the survey so some sections are smaller or out of square. If a mineral survey was performed before the land survey was completed the mineral survey is excluded from the land survey. This creates a square mile survey with a hole in it. In every case a section that is not exactly a mile square will have surveyed government lots that replace the quarter quarter aliquot parts - usually along the north and west margins of the section. You can see those government lots on the Master Title Plat. -
Thanks for the detailed response. How long does this mapping take for 5000 claims? I imagine this could be several weeks. As far as the size of a Section, I was wrong on the Nautical mile. They are much closer to a regular mile. -
Chris is right for the most part. I don't know where he got the nautical mile thing but he does understand the legal and moral requirement for due diligence before putting boots on the ground. Lode claims are often much harder to lay out on a map. Placers follow the survey grid but lode claims follow their individual strikes. Often the claim layout looks something like this situation in Tombstone Arizona: I'm just finishing up mapping more than 5,000 lode claims in an old district like Tombstone. I've done that many times before. It is possible but not easy. Always the process pays off - there are always areas open to claim once you define the existing claims. Just one of the many skills prospectors, today and in history, have to master to be successful. There are no shortcuts. I wouldn't count on a real mining company ever giving written permission to prospect their claims. These companies all carry insurance that prohibits them allowing non employees to do mineral work on their properties. None of them are going to risk having their insurance cancelled. Some companies will offer contracts to known prospectors for prospecting work but then you will be subject to MSHA compliance, contracts, reporting etc. No written but verbal permission? Sure that's good. That and about $2.95 will get you a tall caffe latte at Starbucks. Be sure to save your receipt for the Sheriff. I know many of these companies employees could care less if you prospect the company's claims. I also know that none of them have the power to allow you to prospect legally. You can bet that company security has different orders than the field employees. Lodes can be staked over placers in some circumstances but not the other way around. That's part of the reason mining companies avoid placer claims if possible.
-
If there has been it wouldn't be a valid placer claim. Someone cant come in and stake a placer over a load and vise versa. Its whatever claim was there first that takes the rights. -
Not Sure. That's part of the research that takes about a weeks worth of research. The only way to find that out electronically is find the active claims in a section, which lists the claims in the section which is approximately one nautical mile by nautical mile. Next step is going to the county records and pulling the map for each claim and then plotting that on a map. This normally takes me about 40 hours prior to boots on the ground. There can be problems. Some of the recorded claims in the county records is lacking in location details. An example of this is the BLM records listed the claim located in a certain section, but pulling the recording, it had no map, listed it in section and township, which only narrows it down to 36 square nautical miles. Thats tens of thousands of acres this one 20 acre claim could be in. Usually, the placer claim maps I fins along with the location details in the claims map are good enough to put a GPS coord in to get me within 100 feet of a claims marker. Lode claims are a different story than the placer claims I am used to plotting. Those do not have a standard location. That would probbaly take me even longer. I wish you luck on that. Please tell us if they let you on. Don't need to know details about where who or what company, I'm just curious because it is so easy for someone to ignore the request or say no based off liability.
-
