Void Claim

A void claim is a mining claim or site that has no legal effect, either from the start or from the point the law cut it off. BLM's regulations treat the terms together: forfeiture is "the voidance or invalidation of an unpatented mining claim or site," and "The terms 'abandoned and void', 'null and void,' 'void ab initio' and 'forfeited' have the same effect in these regulations" (43 CFR 3830.5).

Void from the beginning

• Located on closed land. BLM's brochure "Mining Claims and Sites on Federal Lands": "Mining claims and sites located on lands after the effective date of a withdrawal are null and void from the beginning. No rights are obtained by claims or sites declared null and void by the BLM." Land "may not be appropriated under the mining laws prior to the date and time of restoration and opening," and an attempt "vests no rights against the United States" (43 CFR 2091.1(b)). The defect cannot be cured (43 CFR 3833.91(c)).
• Located without meeting state law. Alaska: an attempted location that does not comply with its location statutes "is void" (AS 27.10.010). Arizona: until the location monument and notice are in place, "no right of location is acquired" (A.R.S. 27-202(B)).
• No discovery. The Ninth Circuit, as quoted in CRS Report R48166 (2024), said that without a valuable mineral deposit, unpatented mining claims "are completely invalid under the Mining Law of 1872, and no property rights attach to those invalid unpatented mining claims."

Void by operation of law

A mining claim not recorded with BLM and the county by the 90th day after location "is abandoned and void by operation of law" (43 CFR 3833.1(a)). One whose fees go unpaid "shall be deemed null and void by operation of law" (30 U.S.C. 28i). These are covered under Forfeiture and Abandonment.

Declared void

Discovery and other facts are decided in a contest. BLM Manual Section 3870 describes a mineral contest as "an administrative challenge to the validity of a mining claim or site, for any factual matter not of record with the BLM," in which BLM prays "that the claim(s) be declared null and void." BLM decisions may be appealed (43 CFR 3830.100).

Consequences

• Fees may be refunded where, at location, "the location was on land not open to mineral entry," or where, when the fees were paid, "the mining claim or site was void" (43 CFR 3830.22(b)).
• No fix by amendment. An amendment may not re-establish mining claims "BLM declared void for any reason" (43 CFR 3833.21(b)(2)).
• Reclamation duties remain (43 CFR 3830.91(c)).
• MLRS has no void disposition; a voided mining claim appears as Closed. See Closed Claim.

Why it matters in mining claim research

A void mining claim can still sit in the county records. Research checks the BLM case record for the decision and its date, and the land status on the date of location, because a location on withdrawn land never carried any rights.