Abandonment

Abandonment ends a mining claim. It happens in two ways: voluntarily, when the owner gives the mining claim up, and by statute, when the owner fails to file what the law requires.

Voluntary abandonment

BLM's Glossary of Surveying and Mapping Terms says that in deciding whether rights have been abandoned, "intent is the paramount object of inquiry for to abandon, one must intend to abandon." For a mining claim: "To abandon a mining claim held by location without patent, the holder must leave voluntarily without any intention to retake or resume the claim and regardless of what may become of it in the future."

BLM's brochure "Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands" explains the paperwork. Claimants who abandon a mining claim or site, or relinquish it to the United States, "should file a notice with the proper county or borough office and the BLM state office." No form is required; a letter is acceptable if it gives the claim name and BLM serial number, and there is no fee.

Abandonment by statute (FLPMA section 314)

Under 43 U.S.C. 1744(c), failure to file the required instruments "shall be deemed conclusively to constitute an abandonment of the mining claim or mill or tunnel site by the owner." Intent does not matter. BLM's regulations apply the rule to recording: a mining claim or site not recorded with BLM and the local recording office by the 90th day after location "is abandoned and void by operation of law" (43 CFR 3833.1(a)). The regulations give "abandoned and void," "null and void," "void ab initio," and "forfeited" "the same effect" (43 CFR 3830.5).

State law

State codes also declare abandonment for missed steps. Examples:

• Alaska: failure to record within 90 days "constitutes an abandonment of the claim, and the ground is open to location" (AS 27.10.060)
• Arizona: failure to meet the recording and monumenting requirements of A.R.S. 27-203 "shall be an abandonment of the claim" (27-203(E))
• Idaho: failure to record within 90 days is "an abandonment of the claim" (Idaho Code 47-604)

After abandonment

• The ground may be located again if it is still open to mineral entry. BLM's glossary describes relocation as appropriation of a former mining location that "has become open to forfeiture by abandonment, laches or the like."
• Reclamation duties remain. The BLM brochure says claimants must reclaim surface disturbance "even if the claim or site is declared abandoned and void or forfeited by the BLM," and also when they relinquish it.

Why it matters in mining claim research

A closed mining claim in BLM's records may have ended by relinquishment, by statutory abandonment, or by forfeiture for fees, and the case record shows which. A new mining claim on the same ground is judged by the land status on its own date of location (43 CFR 3830.91(b)), not by the status when the old mining claim was located.