How many small miners are there?


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We've been experimenting with ways to share complex information more easily on Land Matters. Here's my latest efforts at making things clearer with a chart. It's a common question so I thought this might be a good test.

There are about 380,000 mining claims in the western mining states.

Out of those 380,000 mining claim there are about 19,236 that are declared as small miners not subject to maintenance fees.

A little more than 5% of claimants are small miners.

Here's a chart that breaks down where those 19,236 small miners are by State and claim type.

post-29077-0-61835900-1448034356_thumb.p

Let me know if this kind of chart works for you. If it does I'll make more. :)

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Lode claims far outnumber placer claims in the western mining states Mike. Arizona has far more lodes than placers so it makes sense that there would be more lode small miners than placer small miners.

I'll put together a chart showing lode versus placer in the western states and put it up here this weekend. I think a lot of people will be surprised by that one.

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??? What do we have to do to be declared small miners and not pay a maintenance fee??

It's up to you to declare yourself a small miner, no one else can do it for you.

Do you and all your association's claimants own or control 10 or fewer claims? Will you be performing $100 worth of labor on your claim in the coming year?

If the answer to both those questions is yes you can:

1. Declare your small miner status prior to the upcoming mining year (before September 1, 2016) by submitting form 3830 (PDF download) to your BLM State Office. No fee for submitting your 3830 small miner waiver.

2. Record a Notice of Intent to Hold Mining Claim(s) with your County Recorder before your State deadline - usually December 30th.

3. File a copy of your recorded Notice of Intent to Hold Mining Claim(s) with the BLM along with $10 per claim by December 30th* 2016.

4. Perform $100 worth of labor on each claim by August 31, 2017.

5. Declare your small miner status (again) before September 1, 2017 by submitting form 3830 to your BLM State Office.

6. Record an Affaidavit of Labor Performed with your County Recorder before your State deadline - usually December 30th.

7. File a copy of your recorded Affaidavit of Labor Performed with the BLM State Office along with $10 per claim by December 30th* 2017.

8. Rinse and repeat steps 4 thru 7 every year. Don't ever go over the 10 claim limit or miss a filing date or all the fees become due.

That's the basics Mr. dash. You will find a nice illustrated guide in the Land Matters Mining Claims Library. Just type the word "flow" in the search box and download the PDF guides.

* Filing on December 31st is a fail that will lose your claim.

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