New Mining Claim Patent Issued Options

[Clay Diggins]

Congratulations to our fellow miners in Oregon!

The patent for the Garden Spot placer mining claim was finally issued.

Some hard working miners now have their own 50 acres of private land in the Siskyou National Forest and BLM managed lands.

The final cert was awarded in 1990 so it only took the BLM 25 years to get that stamp to the ink pad, stamp and sign the Patent and mail it out. Our fine employees at work!

ORMC86146 is now closed and private patented mineral property. The beauty is the proud "new" owners live on Galice Creek.

Read and Rejoice!

[swizz]

What exactly should we be celebrating here? The fact that this guy lived long enough to get his rubber stamp on a grandfathered patent application after 25 years? This changes nothing. There is still a moratorium on filing new patents for claims and not likely to change anytime soon. I'm happy for the guy but I'm not celebrating until the moratorium is lifted.

[CP]

What exactly should we be celebrating here? The fact that this guy lived long enough to get his rubber stamp on a grandfathered patent application after 25 years? This changes nothing. There is still a moratorium on filing new patents for claims and not likely to change anytime soon. I'm happy for the guy but I'm not celebrating until the moratorium is lifted.

I agree Swizz, not anything to jump up and down about. Seems like an absolutely ridiculous time frame ..... 25 years gad zooks!!

Very good points as well Auger, and I'll add a bit to that. Not that I think the mining law needs changing, maybe it does, but most importantly, we as citizens first need to learn/find what exists in the law books. Which much of it is helpful I believe or written with mining in mind as to the mining law and pertaining USC's/CFR's etc. Before we set off to make big changes or improvements, first we must know what is there already and use it to our advantage not only now but to continue or change anything for future benefit of the citizens.....otherwise like you said, only big money/corporations/government will prevail/profit while citizens get the shaft!

On a side note for the moratorium itself.......If I remember my reading correctly , much of what set off the movement to set the moratorium in place by 1993 was the misuse of patenting processes during the 60's & 70's by the now huge conglomerate ski corps to secure and then privatize vast parcels of land out of the FS lands (1,000's of acres). These are now the most popular winter tourist destinations in the state making billions per year. Still got what they wanted even though the moratorium went in place, deed was done literally and ski areas now have lots of private land to charge access for per head!
I wonder where the eco-whacko environmentalist like to recreate in winter?......think any are ski bums?!

Not trying to poke buttons at any skiers here , just telling the story as I remember it and what motivated the moratorium movement back then.

[Clay Diggins]

On a side note for the moratorium itself.......If I remember my reading correctly , much of what set off the movement to set the moratorium in place by 1993 was the misuse of patenting processes during the 60's & 70's by the now huge conglomerate ski corps to secure and then privatize vast parcels of land out of the FS lands (1,000's of acres). These are now the most popular winter tourist destinations in the state making billions per year. Still got what they wanted even though the moratorium went in place, deed was done literally and ski areas now have lots of private land to charge access for per head!

I think that perception of the issue of patents and ski areas came from the GAO report in 1989. That report did mention a patent for lands near (not adjacent to) an already existing ski resort on private land near Keystone. I too remember the press pushing that story to the limit and beyond.

Of course the whole issue of mineral patents being made for other purposes was already addressed in the 1955 Surface Act and the 1962 Mining Claim Occupation Act as well as the 1976 Federal Land Policy Management Act. Congress had already dealt with that problem 34 years before the GAO report was produced.

The GAO report was more of an effort to deflect attention from the multiple coal mining deaths in the 1980's. The contributors to the report reflect that intent. For the most part only a few eastern states non metallic mine operators were consulted and the prime motivator for the report was the central association for coal miners The American Mining Congress (After merging with the National Coal Association in 1995 it is now the National Mining Association).

You can read the whole GAO report HERE (PDF 49 pages). Being involved at the time I saw a hack report that had a predetermined goal. Others may have a different opinion and I would very much like to hear other perspectives on the value of this report. This report was the major tool used to suspend mineral patents and institute fees for mining claims so I think it's an important historical document in that respect.