mining claim
Registered extraction rights
A mining claim is the legal right to extract minerals from a specific piece of land, or the tract of land itself covered by such a right.
In the American West, prospectors staked mining claims by marking boundaries and registering with authorities: He filed a mining claim on forty acres near the creek.
Claims can be bought, sold, or abandoned.
- stakeSharpened post or share
- prospectorOne seeking valuable deposits
- goldElement seventy-nine
- gold rushMass migration seeking ore
- oreMetal-bearing rock
vein · dig · pickaxe · assay · deed · boundary · mineral · lode · shaft · pan · nugget · territory · public land · rush · boom town · register · rights · excavate
- mininggold, mines, gold mines, coal, oil
- claimscounterclaim, assertion, allegation, contention, declaration
- US Miningcoal miner, prospector, prospecting, open pit, smelting
- mineral rightsmineral rights, drilling rights, oil leases
- mining claimsstaking, stake, corner post, marker, post
- property rightsownership, property rights, private property, real property, title
mining claimillegal mining
Unpermitted mineral extraction
trespassing · claim jumping · public domain · squatter's rights · poaching
mining claimwilderness area
Undeveloped natural land
nature preserve · national park · wildlife sanctuary · protected land · conservation area
mining, claim, mine, miners, claimed, claiming, claims, claimer, claimant