Junior Claim

A junior claim is the later of two mining claims that cover the same ground. Whether the later location gains anything in the overlap depends on the earlier one. If the earlier mining claim is valid and maintained, the overlap is already held. If it was void, forfeited, or abandoned when the later mining claim was located, the later location may take the ground. See Seniority and Senior Claim.

Recording does not decide it

BLM assigns a serial number to each mining claim received with the full processing, location, and maintenance fees (43 CFR 3830.95(b)). Recording, though, "does not make a claim or site valid if it not otherwise valid under applicable law" (43 CFR 3833.1(b)), and BLM "does not intervene in disputes between rival locators over possessory rights" (43 CFR 2091.1(b)). Two overlapping mining claims can both carry BLM serial numbers.

Locating over an earlier mining claim

• Where the earlier mining claim failed for missed assessment work, the ground is open to relocation "as if no location of the same had ever been made, provided that the original locators, their heirs, assigns, or legal representatives, have not resumed work upon the claim after failure and before such location" (30 U.S.C. 28).
• The later location is judged by the land status on its own date. If the land was withdrawn or segregated while the earlier mining claim stood, the later location is forfeited (43 CFR 3830.91(b)), even though the earlier one may have been good. See Withdrawal.
• A relocation stands on its own date. In Ronald R. Graham (77 IBLA 174, 1983), the Interior Board of Land Appeals distinguished "a relocation of a prior claim, which is adverse to that claim," from an amended location "made in furtherance of the prior claim," and held that "a relocation does not relate back." An amendment by someone without title to the earlier mining claim "will be treated as a relocation."

Reducing the overlap

BLM's rules allow an amendment when "You are reducing the size of the mining claim or site" (43 CFR 3833.21(a)(5)), but never one that enlarges it (43 CFR 3833.21(b)(4)). The amendment is recorded in the county and then with BLM within 90 days (43 CFR 3833.22(a)).

Where disputes go

BLM Manual Section 3870 says "Arguments over the right of possession (possessory rights) must be taken to the courts for direct resolution." Its private contest procedure is limited to parties with "conflicting entries," with examples such as "placer claim vs lode claim" and "mill site vs lode or placer claim." Before discovery, the protection a prospector in possession has against rival locators is covered under Pedis Possessio.

Why it matters in mining claim research

A junior mining claim is not worthless, and it is not safe. Research reads the earlier mining claim's full BLM record, finds the date and reason it closed, if it did, and compares that with the later mining claim's date of location and the land status on that date.