Exploration

Exploration is the work of finding a mineral deposit and learning its size, shape, and grade. The U.S. Bureau of Mines' Dictionary of Mining, Mineral, and Related Terms (1968) defines it as "the search for coal, mineral, or ore by (1) geological surveys; (2) geophysical prospecting ... ; (3) boreholes and trial pits; or (4) surface or underground headings, drifts, or tunnels," and says it "aims at locating the presence of economic deposits and establishing their nature, shape, and grade." It also records an older legal sense: "a mode of acquiring rights to mining claims."

BLM's definition

For operations on public land, BLM's surface management rules define exploration as "creating surface disturbance greater than casual use that includes sampling, drilling, or developing surface or underground workings to evaluate the type, extent, quantity, or quality of mineral values present." It "does not include activities where material is extracted for commercial use or sale" (43 CFR 3809.5).

Exploration versus casual use

The line is disturbance and equipment. Casual use means "activities ordinarily resulting in no or negligible disturbance," and it "does not include use of mechanized earth-moving equipment, truck-mounted drilling equipment ... chemicals, or explosives" (43 CFR 3809.5). Work beyond casual use needs a notice or a plan of operations (43 CFR 3809.10). See Casual Use, Notice-Level Operations, and Plan of Operations.

The legal footing

The Mining Law opens valuable mineral deposits in federal land "to exploration and purchase" (30 U.S.C. 22). BLM's brochure "Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands" describes the law as setting standards for "claiming the possessory right to a valuable mineral deposit discovered during exploration."

Exploration as assessment work

Claimants who hold a small miner waiver must still spend $100 per mining claim each year on labor or improvements (43 CFR 3836.11). Exploration counts. Qualifying work includes "drilling, excavations, driving shafts and tunnels, sampling (geochemical or bulk)" and "geological, geochemical, and geophysical surveys" (43 CFR 3836.12). The work may be done on one or more mining claims in a contiguous group covering the same deposit.

How the SEC treats it

The SEC's mining disclosure rules define exploration results as data "generated by mineral exploration programs (i.e., programs consisting of sampling, drilling, trenching, analytical testing, assaying, and other similar activities undertaken to locate, investigate, define or delineate a mineral prospect or mineral deposit)." A company "must not use exploration results alone to derive estimates of tonnage, grade, and production rates." A property with no disclosed mineral reserves is an "exploration stage property" (17 CFR 229.1300).

Why it matters in mining claim research

Exploration leaves a paper trail: notices and plans of operations filed with BLM, assessment work affidavits, drill logs, and assay certificates. Those records show what was tested on a tract, when, and under whose mining claims. See also Prospecting, Core Sample, and Assay.