Annual 2012 Mining Claims Filings

[clay]

With the new fees on mining claims there has been some confusion about just how this will affect claimholders. Ruby put together this explanation and chart to help our fellow prospectors understand their options.

This doesn't cover every situation but if you have a specific question not covered here feel free to ask.

You can download a printable .PDF file with this information at THIS LINK.

General Guidelines

for Your Annual 2012 Mining Claims Filings

by Ruby Miner

WHO

Anyone who has any ACTIVE lode claims, placer claims, mill sites or tunnel sites on file with

the BLM who wants to keep those claims after September 1, 2012.

WHAT and WHEN

You may be required to file one or more of these documents.

Small Miners Waiver

Annual Maintenance Fee

Affidavit of Assessment Work

Intention to Hold

Small Miners

If you and ALL persons on ALL of your association claims hold 10 or fewer mining claims, you

may file a Small Miners Waiver and waive the 2013 Annual Maintenance Fee. This must be

done on or before September 1st. You must also record an Affidavit of Assessment Work

into the County Recorder's office in the county where the claim is located AND file a copy with

the BLM on or before December 30, 2012

If you have Mill Sites and/or Tunnel Sites they do not require assessment work. You will need

to record an Intention to Hold with the appropriate County Recorder AND file a copy with

the BLM on or before December 30, 2012.

Other Miners

All other claim holders must pay an Annual Maintenance Fee with the BLM of $140 for each

Lode Claim, Mill Site and Tunnel Site. For each Placer Claim you must pay $140 for each 20

acres and portion thereof. For example; a placer claim that is the size of a standard lode claim

(600 ft x 1500 ft) is 20.66 acres and will require a payment of $280.

If you are paying an Annual Maintenance Fee you are required by law to record an Intention

to Hold at the County Recorder's office on your existing claims each year. The BLM can not

declare your claims as "abandoned" for failure to make this public filing but it is a good idea to

do so.

Follow the attached chart to determine what you need to file and to determine how much it will

cost you.

WHERE

BLM

Documents that are required to be filed with the BLM need to be filed at the appropriate State

BLM office not your BLM Field Office.

Alaska BLM Office

Arizona BLM Office

California BLM Office

Colorado BLM Office

Idaho BLM Office

Montana BLM Office – Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota

Nevada BLM Office

New Mexico BLM Office – New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas & Kansas

Utah BLM Office

Wyoming BLM Office

Eastern States BLM Office

County Recorder

Documents that are required to be recorded with the county need to be recorded at the

County Recorder's office(s) in the county where your claim(s) is located.

Links to County Recorders

Please remember that these are General Guidelines only. I encourage all miners to study the

appropriate mining laws for a full understanding of the filing requirements.

Another MinerDiggins Adventure

All Rights Reserved

Right to reproduce granted provided text is unmodified and attribution is included.

[homefire]

May I copy and post this post on another site?

[Nugget Shooter]

If it is OK with Clay it is OK with me and should be shared.....

[Au Seeker]

May I copy and post this post on another site?

At the very bottom of Clay/Ruby's chart it is stated "Right to reproduce granted provided text is unmodified and attribution is included", so if you follow those guidelines it seems you have your permission!!

Clay and Ruby are such great people, they do so much to help us prospectors!!!

Skip

[Nugget Shooter]

I agree and glad they are aboard!

[clay]

No problem with sharing folks. Please leave the attribution so our hard work gets credit but please pass it around. The whole point is to take some of the mystery out of annual filings. No need to keep secrets.

[elder-miner]

There is a “joke” on the BLM in the new LAW passed by Congress that arbitrarily & illegally raises association placer claim maintenance fees by up to 800%.

The same law exempts any holder of lode mining claims, mill & tunnel sites located BEFORE August 10,1993 from paying any maintenance fee what-so-ever.

This should be brought to the attention of every BLM state office immediately So, they can implement that into effect.

If you doubt that, read it yourself. It’s plain as day & statutorily imposed.

CONSOLIDATED APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2012

Making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2012, and for other purposes.

CLAIM MAINTENANCE FEE AMENDMENTS

SEC. 430.

Section 10101 of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993 (30 U.S.C. 28f) is amended— (1) in subsection (a)—

(A) by striking so much as precedes the second sentence and inserting the following:

‘‘(a) CLAIM MAINTENANCE FEE.—

‘‘(1) LODE MINING CLAIMS, MILL SITES, AND TUNNEL SITES—

The holder of each unpatented lode mining claim, mill site, or tunnel site,

located pursuant to the mining laws of the United States on or after August 10, 1993, shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, on or before September 1 of each year, to the extent provided in advance in appropriations Acts, a claim maintenance fee of $100 per claim or site, respectively.’’; and

(B) by adding at the end the following:

‘‘(2) PLACER MINING CLAIMS.—The holder of each unpatented placer mining claim located pursuant to the mining laws of the United States

located before, on, or after August 10, 1993, shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, on or before September 1 of each year, the claim maintenance fee described in subsection (a), for each 20 acres of the placer claim or portion thereof.’’; and

(2) in subsection (b), by striking the first sentence and inserting the following: ‘‘The claim maintenance fee under subsection (a) shall be paid for the year in which the location is made, at the time the location notice is recorded with the Bureau of Land Management.’’

SEE > PAGE 1047

http://www.gpo.gov/f...W-112publ74.pdf

[clay]

I did notice that "joke" elder-miner. Seems to be a rather substantive change for those affected.

I suspect I may have had a part in distracting them from dealing with that issue.

When I read the changes to the law I, less than casually, gave a big WOO HOO! to Washington because of the Congressionally mandated reduction in the fee base back to $100. It took several months but the DOI lawyers must have finally decided that they could interpret Congress to have actually meant $140 and not the $100 clearly stated in the amendment. :hahaha:

This is the kind of stuff that happens when a midnight bill is pushed through, outside of process, by ignorant politicians with an agenda more related to their own advancement than the will of those they represent.

In other words politics as usual.

[clay]

We have had several questions come up about the Small Miners Exemption process and filing.

The most common questions relate to the time frame for filing and the end of year filing deadline.

First of all please keep in mind that the flow chart that is at the beginning of this thread is simplified and does not cover every persons situation. You can consider this post in addition to and a further explanation to that chart.

The BLM sites can be misleading about how to make your first SME filing. All but the Nevada BLM site do not correctly address your first year of transitioning from the Maintenance Fee to the SME. The California BLM site is not only misleading in this regard but they apply the process of subsequent years to your first year filing - dangerously wrong.

To put this as simply as I know how:

___________________________________________________________________________

Your 2012 $140 Maintenance Fee filing was made by September 1, 2011 and expires on September 1, 2012.

___________________________________________________________________________

To waive your Maintenance Fees for 2013 you must file a Small Miners Waiver before September 1, 2012.

Then...

___________________________________________________________________________

By December 30 2012:

(1) Record an Notice of intent to Hold with the County Recorder in which your claims are located.

(2) File a Notice of Intent to Hold with the BLM State Office - BLM processing fee is $10 per claim/site.

In addition to the standard NOI you need to include in the record and filing the fact that you will be working under the Small Miners Exemption during the 2013 assessment year.

Then...

___________________________________________________________________________

By September 1 2013:

(1) Complete your assessment work for the 2013 assessment year.

(2) File a small miners waiver or pay your 2014 Maintenance fees.

Then...

___________________________________________________________________________

By December 30 2013:

(1) Record an Affidavit of Assessment Work with the County Recorder in which your claims are located.

(2) File a Proof of Labor/Affidavit of Assessment Work with the BLM State Office - BLM processing fee is $10 per claim/site.

__________________________________________________________________

This still doesn't cover every situation but it should clear up some common misunderstandings about converting to a Small Miners Waiver.

[Steel Pan]

O.K., now I'm confused,...

In the packet that I received, under the heading "County Recorder Filing Requirements" it states,...

"In addition to filing with the BLM, file a 2012 Affidavit of Assessment Work OR Notice of Intent to Hold with the county recorter's office".

I understand this to either file the Affidavit of Assessment if you do the assessment work OR file the NOI if you pay the maint. fee.

As for the BLM, I have never filed a NOI, only the waiver and the affidavit.

I keep getting conflicting info, so who/what is right?????

And can you back it up????

[clay]

The confusion stems from the different requirements for a new Small Miner Waiver and an existing Small Miner Exemption.

The example I posted today relates to the requirements for a NEW Small Miners Waiver Filing.

The flow chart has the timing and requirements for an already existing SME.

If you were filing your Maintenance Fees and are switching to a Small Miner's Exemption the most recent example is what you want to follow.

The University of Nevada Reno has an excellent PDF file available that covers the basics of mineral claims. This is an older publication (2002) but other than the fee amounts, the difference in monumenting and county recordings (these vary from state to state) their instructions are very clear.

From that publication:

A claim holder should be particularly

aware of three common problems that can result in the loss of a claim:

1. If a claim were located in September 1995, for example, the first proof of

labor is not required until 1997. Because the Bureau of Land Management

requires a document to be filed each calendar year, however, the locator

should file a notice of intent to hold in 1996.

2. If a claim were located in December 1995, for example, and the location

certificate filed with the Bureau of Land Management in 1996, it will still be

necessary to file a notice of intent to hold or a proof of labor in 1996. (Such

a notice is required in each calendar year following the calendar year of

location.)

3. If assessment work were done early (in October 1995, for example) and

the proof of labor were filed with the Bureau of Land Management in 1995,

a notice of intent to hold must be filed in 1996. Alternatively, the claim owner

can refile the proof of labor with the Bureau of Land Management. However,

there must be a filing every calendar year.

As you can see if you are switching to the SME for this coming assessment year (2013) you will have made no filing in the Calendar year 2012. Thus the NOI by December 30th 2013.

You can get a copy of MINING CLAIM PROCEDURES FOR NEVADA PROSPECTORS AND MINERS by clicking on this title.

Part of this confusion comes from the difference between the assessment year and the federal calendar year.

The assessment year coming up runs from September 1, 2012 to September 1 2013.

The federal calendar year for 2013 runs from December 30th 2012 to December 30th 2013. Please notice that this is NOT a real Calendar year as Congress ignored the last day of the year and made the calendar filing date December 30th.

If you file your NOI or Proof of Labor on December 31st you will lose your claim.

Those crazy cats in congress - always mixing things up!

[Steel Pan]

My claim is in Calif.

Other than when I originally filed for the claim, I have always filed the waiver and affidavit.

Both with BLM and just the affidavit with the county.

The Waiver to BLM by Sept. 1st.

The original affidavit to the county (along with their filing fees) by Sept. 30 and a copy of the affidavit

(along with the $10 filing fee) to BLM by Dec. 30.

Far as I know my claim is still valid.

I get the fililng packet each year from the BLM and a tax bill each year from the county.

[clay]

My claim is in Calif.

Other than when I originally filed for the claim, I have always filed the waiver and affidavit.

Both with BLM and just the affidavit with the county.

The Waiver to BLM by Sept. 1st.

The original affidavit to the county (along with their filing fees) by Sept. 30 and a copy of the affidavit

(along with the $10 filing fee) to BLM by Dec. 30.

Far as I know my claim is still valid.

I get the fililng packet each year from the BLM and a tax bill each year from the county.

Sounds like you are good to go Steel Pan.

[Steel Pan]

Thanks clay,

I thought so, but like I mentioned, I keep seeing conflicting/confusing info and it puts doubts in my mind. :hmmmmm:

I'd really hate to screw things up and have to re-file for my claim, ya know, all the footwork, paperwork and fees, again.

[elder-miner]

http://www.oha.doi.gov/IBLA/Ibladecisions/184IBLA/184IBLA007%20CHRISTIAN%20F.%20MURER%206-5-2013.pdf

[clay]

Just a reminder less than 24 hours to go.

If you haven't done your annual BLM filing yet you need to get them in to your State BLM office by end of day tomorrow.

2016mcfilings.pdf

2016mcf.pdf