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Prospecting, Government definitions
CP
post Jan 3 2007, 01:01 PM
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For those of you wondering exactly what "prospecting" would be defined as..............

Here is Colorado state gov's definition.

QUOTE
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


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Olog the Ogre
post Mar 16 2017, 12:30 PM
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I'm late to the conversation, but based upon another thread or two out there, I figured I'd better read this one.

I have a couple questions.

" While information gathered by prospecting
concerning mineral resources within National Forest Wilderness
may be utilized in connection with the location of valuable
mineral deposits which may be discovered through such activity
and which may be open to such location, attention is directed
to the fact that no claim may be located after midnight,
December 31, 1983, and no valid discovery may be made after
that time on any location purportedly made before that time.
"

What does that mean?

And then we have this one:

"Casual use means activities ordinarily resulting in no or negligible

disturbance of the public lands or resources. For example--

(1) Casual use generally includes the collection of geochemical,

rock, soil, or mineral specimens using hand tools; hand panning; or non-

motorized sluicing. It may include use of small portable suction

dredges. It also generally includes use of metal detectors, gold spears

and other battery-operated devices for sensing the presence of minerals,

and hand and battery-operated drywashers.
"

The last one would suggest that under the definition of casual, a small dredge does not require a permit. That's confusing because the BLM specifically requires a permit for any dredge work at all.

Also, all of this seems to revolve around the concept of "A significant amount of surface" changes. Well, has anyone been to Cripple Creek and viewed the mine up there? THAT is significant land damage. In one persons entire lifetime, even with an operation like the Hoffman's on "Gold Rush", that much damage could not be caused very easily. That mine took a century to get that big.

So my question would be, who sets these "standards" on what is significant? Some ecologist's would scream over a shovel full, others who are a little more industrial minded wouldn't consider "significant" damage until tree's fall down.

Almost the entire of Southern Colorado is built on prior gold mining efforts. Garfield, Monarch, Breckenridge, Maysville, Granite... all these towns are literally built on tailings. And there are a lot more. The Arkansas River is just one long tailings all the way from North Fork all the way down to Pueblo. How can we damage anything with small dredge's when those giant dredge's already destroyed the natural landscape over a hundred years ago?

Further, there are no "natural wildlife" in the Arkansas. We destroyed the natural ecology at the same time frame and all the trout that are in that river is bred in Salida. They can't even claim that small dredge work will disturb them because they don't belong here either! Plus it doesn't matter - if we accidentally kill a few fish, well a lot more will replace them by next breeding season. The river is too fast now for catfish because when they dredged it, they also straightened it - the damage is done and now they "mitigate" it, and yet they are clamoring over us? OMG.

As an individual, when I leave a site I always back fill, but I dig one heck of a hole. I try to move about ten yards a day by hand. By some people's definition, I am worse than a beaver but I just use a shovel and a pick - I have seem claims with less damage than I do in a day and they have machines. This whole thing is very confusing and there are no specific definitions.


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MikeS
post Mar 17 2017, 01:57 PM
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I would argue the first clause Olog mentioned about wilderness is not absolute. Some of the individual legislation designating wilderness areas have written into them exemptions such as being able to establish mineral rights (stake a claim) for 20 years after the designation is made.

Although some states and agencies push for permit for dredging, the regulation mentioned is more in line with the law and I would argue the law does not prohibit "motorized sluicing" like it portrays in the regulation either(my personal take).

The larger mining operations mentioned are well beyond "casual use" and they are in most cases following proper plans of operations and other requirements.


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Posts in this topic
- ColoradoProspector   Prospecting   Jan 3 2007, 01:01 PM
- - ColoradoProspector   Hey All! I just edited the title of this thr...   Jan 4 2007, 06:11 PM
- - jmann   Well I think Im in bussiness. Joe   Jan 4 2007, 06:44 PM
- - russau   reading this didnt help my cabin fever one bit...   Jan 5 2007, 06:09 AM
- - ColoradoProspector   Glad you guys like this thread....I just happened ...   Jan 5 2007, 01:36 PM
- - ColoradoProspector   No more comments/questions yet?! Okay, I...   Jan 27 2007, 12:28 PM
|- - faaus   CP, you ,ake some very interesting points in this ...   Nov 22 2008, 10:22 PM
- - ColoradoProspector   Thought there would be more discussions on this th...   Nov 13 2008, 10:09 AM
- - ColoradoProspector   Thanks Faaus, Seemed like all those quotes kinda ...   Nov 25 2008, 02:14 PM
- - Mrs.CP   Great information Dan! How about that it woul...   Oct 15 2009, 08:13 AM
- - nm jack   Ok here is a question. If I'm dredging on my c...   Oct 16 2009, 07:45 AM
- - russau   QUOTE (nm jack @ Oct 16 2009, 07:45 AM) ...   Oct 16 2009, 07:59 AM
|- - Scratch60   QUOTE (russau @ Oct 16 2009, 08:59 AM) th...   Aug 12 2012, 01:03 PM
- - nm jack   Thanks Russ. I very seldom ask a question here I d...   Oct 16 2009, 09:37 AM
|- - russau   search the 1866 and the 1872 mining laws. or over ...   Oct 17 2009, 05:53 AM
- - Mrs.CP   No reason to send them to another site Russ. We ha...   Oct 17 2009, 06:12 AM
- - ColoradoProspector   Thank you Denise, you are correct too. Most the in...   Oct 17 2009, 11:20 AM
- - bottledigger   Great info, Thanks to ColoradoProspector.com.   Feb 21 2010, 11:56 AM
|- - ColoradoProspector   QUOTE (bottledigger @ Feb 21 2010, 10:56 ...   Feb 23 2010, 03:23 PM
- - bottledigger   This is old, but I kept it in my computer. CP,If i...   Feb 21 2010, 12:03 PM
- - russau   before you attempt ot throw the 1866/1872 mining l...   Aug 12 2012, 06:31 PM
- - ColoradoProspector   Hi Scratch, The FS is not even authorized to regu...   Aug 13 2012, 07:34 PM
- - Crusty   Today's thread posted to the Facebook page...   Feb 1 2015, 09:53 AM
- - Olog the Ogre   I'm late to the conversation, but based upon a...   Mar 16 2017, 12:30 PM
|- - MikeS   I would argue the first clause Olog mentioned abou...   Mar 17 2017, 01:57 PM
- - johnnybravo300   The fast answers..... You can't file a claim o...   Mar 16 2017, 02:37 PM
- - johnnybravo300   The casual use term is a strange one.   Mar 16 2017, 05:25 PM
- - johnnybravo300   I've only seen written approval needed for som...   Mar 17 2017, 09:35 PM


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