Patented Mining Claim

A patented mining claim is a mining claim for which the United States issued a mineral patent, passing title from the federal government to the claimant. Once patented, the ground is private property. It no longer depends on annual maintenance fees or filings with BLM.

What the patent process required

The requirements are in the Mining Law at 30 U.S.C. 29 and 37. A claimant applying for patent had to show, among other things:

• A certificate that $500 worth of labor had been expended or improvements made on the claim
• A plat and field notes of the claim showing its boundaries
• Published notice of the application, which gave adverse claimants the chance to come forward
• Payment of $5 per acre for a lode claim, or $2.50 per acre for a placer claim

The patent moratorium

Congress imposed a moratorium, effective 10/1/1994, on spending appropriated funds to accept or process mineral patent applications that had not yet reached a defined point in the process. BLM states that until the moratorium is lifted or otherwise expires, it will not accept any new patent applications. The practical result is that patented mining claims are a closed set. The ones that exist were patented under applications filed before the moratorium.

Patented and unpatented compared

• Title: a patented mining claim is privately owned. On an unpatented mining claim the United States keeps title and the claimant holds a possessory right.
• Annual requirements: a patented mining claim owes nothing to BLM each year. An unpatented mining claim must pay the maintenance fee or meet the small miner waiver requirements, or it is forfeited.
• Where the record lives: a patented mining claim is conveyed like other private real property, so its chain of title runs through the county records. An unpatented mining claim is tracked in both the BLM case record and the county record.

Researching a patented mining claim

The patent itself is the starting point. It states what was conveyed and describes the ground. From there the work is a conventional chain of title in the county records, checked against the patent description. Patented mining claims frequently sit inside blocks of unpatented mining claims and federal land, so the boundary between private and federal ground is a common source of error on maps.