Prospecting, Government definitions Options

[CP]

For those of you wondering exactly what "prospecting" would be defined as..............

Here is Colorado state gov's definition.

34-32-117 (2).
(12) "Prospecting" means the act of searching for or investigating a mineral deposit.
"Prospecting" includes, but is not limited to, sinking shafts, tunneling, drilling core and bore
holes and digging pits or cuts and other works for the purpose of extracting samples prior
to commencement of development or extraction operations, and the building of roads, access
ways, and other facilities related to such work. The term does not include those activities
which cause no or very little surface disturbance, such as airborne surveys and photographs,
use of instruments or devices which are hand carried or otherwise transported over the
surface to make magnetic, radioactive, or other tests and measurements, boundary or claim
surveying, location work, or other work which causes no greater land disturbance than is
caused by ordinary lawful use of the land by persons not prospecting. The term also does
not include any single activity which results in the disturbance of a single block of land
totaling one thousand six hundred square feet or less of the land's surface, not to exceed two such disturbances per acre; except that the cumulative total of such disturbances will not
exceed five acres statewide in any prospecting operation extending over twenty-four
consecutive months.

CP

This post has been edited by ColoradoProspector: Jan 4 2007, 05:41 PM

[CP]

Thank you Denise, you are correct too. Most the information being discussed on all these different sites is actually quoted here, and has been discussed here since the conception of the ColoradoProspector club/website nearly 7 years ago. Wow time sure does fly by!
Good thing we can find this info here too, especially for those of us who don't have extra with the economy this year..........!

So, even though there may be more responses at other sites.......the actual information needed to read for yourself is here, or can be found easily from here. The number of replies being higher on other threads/sites doesn't mean the information there is any better.
Funny, even the researchers posting at other websites see value of posting here too, and seem to be doing at least some, if not alot of their research from here as well. Why not you the people?
That is what the ColoradoProspector forums are for......discussions of information that can be read for yourself in truth.

Great to see that so many are now following this train of thought too. The authorities work for us the people and what we need to do is read and understand what pertains to our right to prospect/mine! They aren't going to "tell us" how or what we prospect!

For NM_Jack's question............Russ stated it right, they can not require you to file either. The NOI is not something I would recommend anyone file as a miner. Unless you'd like the rangers to "determine" if you are creating a "significant resource disturbance" or not.

When a POO should be filed is above in the CFR's.

All the answers to your questions are in this very thread above your post on page 1. Begining with the first post on Colorado state gov's definition for prospecting, and the CFR's you just asked about too.
Just gotta' read it.
As a claim owner, this is the kind of info you'll want to read up on and know too, for sure!

Basically from what you've said though, using a 2 inch" backpack unit or sluicing a few buckets.....you've got no worries. IMHO

If you were to ever begin a large scale operation under POO that did create a significant disturbance, then there is also a Colorado aggregate extraction guideline pdf down load in the thread titled "state permits" that you would want to read over.

Hopefully everyone finds this information useful. Good luck out there prospecting everyone!


CP