BLM · claims
Mining claims vs casual collecting
The map can still say federal. Someone else may already have the minerals.
Casual-use rockhounding on BLM assumes you are picking common specimens on unclaimed public land. A located mining claim is a property interest in the minerals. Walking across it to get to a wash is one problem. Filling a bucket on it is another.
Status in one line
Unclaimed open BLM: typical 25/250 personal-use story, hand tools. On a claim: do not collect the claimed minerals without the claimant’s permission. Recreating through the area may still be allowed. Digging their rock is not “the same desert.”
How you miss them
- Phone maps show public / BLM and stop there
- Posts and monuments are down, buried, or never obvious from the two-track
- The claim is for a mineral you thought was “just agate”
BLM’s mineral-records tools (and the local field office) beat a Facebook screenshot. Ownership layers and claim layers are not the same switch.
What a claim is not
- Not automatically a fence and a no-trespassing sign
- Not a license for the claimant to close a public road
- Not a reason for you to sell what you picked on open ground last year — that is the commercial line, different page
Field habit
- Check claims before the famous name on the blog, especially around workings, claim posts, or fresh trenches.
- If you see posts, work, or a name plate — stop collecting and move to ground you can document as unclaimed.
- Do not “just take a few pounds.” Permission is yes or no.
What this site will not publish
No list of active serial numbers, no “these claims are abandoned,” no advice to work someone else’s hole. Abandoned is a legal conclusion, not a vibe.
Informational only. Confirm current claim status with BLM mineral records and the field office before you collect.