Every year, without fail, we encounter multiple cases of mineral trespass. They range from casual panners to groups digging extensive holes on our claims.
The majority of those guilty do not understand the full extent of their actions. How many of us would willfully commit a federal crime? That is exactly what you do if you remove minerals from a registered mining claim.
Another form of mineral trespass is the subject of this week’s discussion. Do you recall in a previous blog an issue where placer claims had been overstaked by both individuals and a company?
I chanced upon this discussion on the “Nugget Shooter” Forum. It addresses the issue of staking a claim over an existing placer or lode claim.
The forum states, “No you cannot locate a claim of any kind on land that is already claimed without notorized written permission of the senior claims owner. Any portion of a junior claim extending into a senior claim is null and void regardless of type.”
People make mistakes, and we are tolerant of that because we have made mistakes ourselves. We are becoming less tolerant all the time… the Lawrence County Sheriff’s office has already escorted one group of diggers off our claim. That's relatively minor action; we could have pursued each on trespass charges and demanded resitution for damage and any gold they had mined.
We have photographic evidence of one overstaking effort… hmmmm, what to do, what to do?
The next excerpt of the forum creates even less tolerance on a big scale. It states, “If a group of junior claims extend into senior claims the entire group of junior claims are void.”
We do not find any further validation of this statement, but it raises some interesting questions. The company that staked a lode claim over our placer has voided their entire block of claims? If the mining companies' claim block is void, our neigboring claim owner still has a right to his claim but no right to overstake our boundary? How would the courts rule on this one?
The forum concludes, “Any prospecting, mining or metal detecting by the junior claim owner on senior claims is criminal trespass and subject to prosecution and civil suit for damages.”
We’re a little tired of the whole business: We see evidence of digging on our claims; we have evidence of parties staking claims over a registered claim; we get phone calls from people that they or their ancestors had our claim “once upon a time” and therefore they have a right to be there!
A new season approaches. Ttechnology which allows us to monitor activity on our claims is relatively inexpensive compared to gold losses at today's price. Faces, license plates, activity will be videotaped in the new season. Maybe we’ll post some of those photos here! Is mineral trespass worth it?
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