Mineral and Gem mining and prospecting, What is the first step Options

[zziipp]

I am having trouble getting a straight answer from the officials in Colorado. Can someone please tell me how to obtain permits or stake a claim on Mt. Antero. What is my first step

[Rocket]

Glad to hear you have had good experience with the BLM.

Did you notice that the Mining Claim Packet is from the BLM?

To clarify another point for other readers, the BLM website (LR2000) is for locating mine claim ownership and the County Assessor's office (for on-line info) and County Clerk and Recorder are for private property ownership.

Sorry to hear you have had bad experience with the Forest Service. So readers can discern misinformation for themselves, here is the link for the US Forest Service Handbook.

www.fs.fed.us/dirindexhome/dughtml/fsm.html

Explore the links to get to the official (ooooo! there's that terrible word) websites for the laws and regs and forms.
What is the problem with complying with these requirements, staying within the laws? We are professional miners are we not?

[Somethin' Else]

Glad to hear you have had good experience with the BLM. Did you notice that the Mining Claim Packet is from the BLM? To clarify another point for other readers, the BLM website (LR2000) is for locating mine claim ownership and the County Assessor's office (for on-line info) and County Clerk and Recorder are for private property ownership. Sorry to hear you have had bad experience with the Forest Service. So readers can discern misinformation for themselves, here is the link for the US Forest Service Handbook. www.fs.fed.us/dirindexhome/dughtml/fsm.html Explore the links to get to the official (ooooo! there's that terrible word) websites for the laws and regs and forms. What is the problem with complying with these requirements, staying within the laws? We are professional miners are we not?

I've visited the US Forest Service Handbook website and found it was only useful in its conspicuous lack of information on mining. The index had a heading called Minerals & Geology, under which it said "No Handbook."




All the resources you all have mentioned in this thread are useful for gathering information on the area you want to prospect. There appears to be some confusion about vocabulary and word definitions. The BLM website is the most helpful in information on mining laws and staking mining claims. Browse through all their publications. There is even one that shows how long/wide your claim must be when staking it and what size markers you need to place. The BLM's LR2000 can print out a list of active, closed, pending and void claims, but as one of you mentioned it can lag 90 days in the posting of information. That's where the county clerk comes in. But I have seen on the BLM documents where it isn't required to file a claim with the county. I hope that's changed. Since LR2000 no longer posts the maps, the county clerk is maybe the only place you'll find maps with detailed location marker locations.

The county assessor's records are for surface land ownership information, so you can see who owns what. Wilderness areas, wildlife areas, as well as private property ownerships and even public land ownerships show up on the GIS map with parcel boundaries overlayed on aerial maps. Topographic maps downloaded for free from store.usgs.gov also have an aerial imagery layer and PLSS (Sec-Twp-Rge) lines you can add to your map to help you identify land features and plan your prospecting trip.

There may be other resources to help you compile information. Knowledge is power. I googled Mount Antero (as an example) and got maps and a history of the area, including mining history. Very interesting. Happy prospecting.