Services › Category 4 of 18
Land, title & claims services
Staking, BLM filings, title opinions and land status
Land, title and claims services are the administrative and legal plumbing that keeps your right to the minerals alive. Claim staking is the physical act of locating an unpatented mining claim on open federal land: posting a location notice and monumenting the corners and boundaries to the specifications of the state the ground sits in, with GPS-recorded positions and a map. Recording is a two-step obligation — the certificate of location goes to the county recorder in the county where the claim lies, and a copy plus fees goes to the BLM state office, with federal forfeiture if the BLM filing is late. Annual maintenance is the recurring work: paying the per-claim maintenance fee (or filing a small-miner waiver and the assessment-work evidence that goes with it) by the statutory deadline every single year, plus any state and county annual affidavit. Land status research establishes what the ground actually is before you spend on it — master title plats, historical index, withdrawals, patents, existing claims, split estate where the surface is private and the minerals federal — while title research builds the chain of ownership and transfers for claims and fee mineral interests. Surface use agreements are the negotiated contracts with a private surface owner that let you get to minerals you already own or lease.
17 firms working in this trade
Alphabetical. Nobody paid to be here
- Burgex Mining ConsultantsSandy, Utah
Claim staking, BLM and county renewal filings, GIS mapping
burgex.com - ChoraQuestAtlanta, Georgia
Unpatented mining claim research, staking and mineral title examination
choraquest.com - Crowley FleckBillings, Montana
Title examination for patented and unpatented claims and millsites
crowleyfleck.com - Davis GrahamDenver, Colorado
Mineral title opinions on unpatented claims and federal public lands
davisgraham.com - Dorsey & Whitney LLPMinneapolis, Minnesota
Mining and natural resources counsel covering permitting and acquisitions
dorsey.com - Erwin Thompson FaillersReno, Nevada
Title examination of fee lands and patented and unpatented claims
renolaw.com - Kurt J. Hoffman Mining ServicesPost Falls, Idaho
Claim staking, location notices, landman services and project management
kjhmining.com - Mine Data, LLCPrescott, Arizona
Claim staking, landman title research and mineral rights permitting
minedata.us - Panke Claim Staking ServicesCoeur d'Alene, Idaho
Lode claim staking, location notices, county and BLM recording
pankeclaimstakingservices.com - Parr Brown Gee & LovelessSalt Lake City, Utah
Mining claims, mineral leases, patenting and title ownership analysis
parrbrown.com - Rangefront Mining ServicesElko, Nevada
Claim staking, land status research and annual BLM renewal filings
rangefront.com - Ruesch & ReeveHurricane, Utah
Mining claim purchase due diligence, land and mineral leases
rrlegal.com - Snell & WilmerPhoenix, Arizona
Mineral title examination, opinions, curatives and surface use conflicts
swlaw.com - Steptoe & Johnson PLLCWheeling, West Virginia
Mineral title opinions, abstracting and county record research
steptoe-johnson.com - Stinson LLPMinneapolis, Minnesota
Mineral tenure acquisition, permitting and mining property transactions
stinson.com - Water & Environmental TechnologiesButte, Montana
Surface and mineral estate research, mapping and land status reports
waterenvtech.com - Welborn Sullivan Meck & TooleyDenver, Colorado
Mineral title examination, title opinions and curative title work
wsmtlaw.com
Listed because we found them, not because they asked or paid. Every entry was checked against the company’s own website; none of it is an endorsement, and we have no commercial relationship with anyone on this page. Work in Land, title and claims services and want to be added, corrected or removed? Tell us — it is free either way.
How it is actually bought
Contract shapes and what they price
Claim staking is almost always quoted per claim, with the price stepping down as block size rises, plus a mobilisation charge, per diem and vehicle costs for the crew, and the posts, caps and location notices either included or billed as materials; large placer blocks are sometimes quoted per acre instead. Recording work is commonly billed per claim as an administrative fee with the statutory county and BLM fees passed through as disbursements, and annual maintenance is usually sold as a flat annual per-claim administration fee that covers the filing calendar, the BLM payment or waiver, and the county affidavit, again with government fees passed through. Land status and title research is bought either as a lump sum per township or per claim block, or hourly for abstractors and landmen working a courthouse and the BLM records; a title opinion on top of that is hourly legal work from a lawyer licensed in the state. Surface use agreements are negotiated hourly by counsel and a landman, with the consideration paid to the surface owner entirely separate from the professional fees. A typical engagement runs: land status check to confirm the ground is open and to identify the surface estate, staking plan and claim layout, field staking and monumenting, county recording within the state deadline, BLM recording within the federal 90-day window, then a maintained annual filing calendar. Push for a fixed-fee annual maintenance arrangement with a written calendar and confirmation of each filing, because the failure mode here is administrative and absolute.
Who regulates it
And what each one requires of this trade
- Bureau of Land Management — 43 CFR Parts 3830, 3832, 3833, 3835 — Sets the federal rules: you forfeit a claim if you fail to record it with BLM within 90 days after locating it (§ 3830.91(a)(1)), claim and site size limits are fixed by § 3832.22 and § 3832.32, and fees, waivers and annual filings run through Parts 3833 and 3835.
- BLM — annual maintenance obligations — Requires payment of the annual maintenance fee per claim or site by September 1 each year, or a small-miner waiver on Form 3830-002 postmarked by September 1 if the claimant holds 10 or fewer non-closed claims nationwide, with assessment work evidence filed by December 30; missing it subjects the claims to forfeiture by law, and fees must be paid in each state separately.
- County recorders and state mining claim statutes (varies by state — Nevada NRS 517 shown as example) — Each state sets its own monumenting specification, recording deadline, map requirement and annual affidavit: in Nevada, monuments must be placed within 60 days of posting notice (NRS 517.030), the certificate of location recorded with the county within 90 days (NRS 517.050, 517.110), a map filed within 90 days, and an annual affidavit filed by November 1 (NRS 517.230).
- U.S. Forest Service — 36 CFR Part 228 Subpart A — Claims can be located on National Forest System lands, but operations on them require a notice of intent or an approved plan of operations with reclamation financial assurance, and compliance with federal and state environmental standards (§§ 228.4, 228.8, 228.13).
- State boards for the licensure of professional land surveyors (varies by state) — Boundary surveys, mineral surveys and any survey that will be relied on in a transaction or a dispute must be performed and sealed by a surveyor licensed in that state; the 56 NCEES member boards set and enforce those licences, and some states run separate engineering and surveying boards.
The standards that apply
Ask which of these a firm works to
- 43 CFR 3832.22 and 3832.32 — claim and site dimensions — A lode claim is limited to 1,500 feet along the course of the vein and 300 feet either side of its middle (1,500 by 600 feet); an individual placer claim cannot exceed 20 acres and an association placer claim 160 acres with at least eight co-locators; an individual mill site is capped at 5 acres. You must follow both state and federal law, including state monumenting requirements (§ 3832.11).
- 43 CFR 3830.91 — the 90-day recording rule — "You will forfeit your mining claims or sites if you fail to record a mining claim or site within 90 days after you locate it" — an absolute deadline, separate from and in addition to any county recording deadline.
- BLM mining claim fee schedule (fees effective September 1, 2025; subject to change July 1, 2026) — The published per-claim fee table a claims agent should be billing against: $200 maintenance, $49 location and $25 processing for each new claim, with placer maintenance assessed per 20 acres, plus $15 items for affidavits, notices of intent to hold, amended certificates and transfers.
- 2026 ALTA/NSPS Minimum Standard Detail Requirements for Land Title Surveys (effective February 23, 2026) — The current edition, superseding the 2021 standards for surveys commenced on or after that date; it is the standard title insurers and lenders require for surveys used to evaluate boundaries, easements, encroachments and access, with optional Table A items negotiated up front.
- Nevada NRS 517 monumenting specification (example of a state standard) — Illustrates how prescriptive state law can be: valid legal monuments include blazed trees of at least 4 in. diameter, capped rocks, wooden posts 1.5 in. by 1.5 in. by 4 ft, or metal posts 2 in. diameter by 4 ft, and maps must be filed at a 500 feet per inch scale on 8.5 x 14 in. or 24 x 36 in. sheets (NRS 517.030, 517.040).
What to demand from a firm
Credentials worth checking before you sign
- State-licensed Professional Land Surveyor (PLS/PS), licensed in the state where the ground lies — Demand the licence number and verify it with that state's board through the NCEES member board directory; a surveyor licensed next door cannot seal work in your state, and an unsealed boundary or mineral survey will not hold up against a competing claimant.
- AAPL Certified Professional Landman (CPL) or Registered Professional Landman (RPL) — Issued by the American Association of Professional Landmen, both require AAPL active membership, post-secondary education and work experience, a written or oral examination taken at an AAPL testing event, and recertification every two years through continuing education units; CPL is the senior designation.
- Attorney licensed in the state, for title opinions and surface use agreements — A claims agent or landman can research and record, but only a lawyer admitted in that state should render a title opinion or draft a binding surface use agreement, and the state bar's public roll is the place to confirm admission and standing.
- A written annual filing calendar with confirmation of each filing — Not a formal credential, but the operative one: require your maintenance agent to deliver dated proof of the September 1 BLM payment or waiver, the December 30 assessment work evidence where a waiver was used, and the state annual affidavit, because forfeiture for a missed filing is automatic and generally unrecoverable.
Where to find firms yourself
Public registers and member directories
- BLM Mineral & Land Records System (MLRS) — The federal system of record for mining claims, land tenure and solid minerals cases, with a public research map searchable by name or legal land description without an account, and online fee payment through pay.gov; use it to see who holds the adjoining claims and which agents file for them.
- BLM General Land Office (GLO) Records — More than five million federal land title records back to 1820, plus survey plats and field notes from 1810 and master title plats showing current land status for a township — the free starting point for any land status or title research before you pay anyone to do it.
- NCEES Member Licensing Board Directory — Public index of all 56 member licensing boards for professional engineers and professional surveyors, each linking to that jurisdiction's licensing information and public licensee lookup — the way to both find and verify a licensed surveyor in the right state.
- State minerals agency claim pages (varies by state — Nevada Division of Minerals shown as example) — Several state minerals agencies publish state-specific claim filing requirements, timelines and forms, and are the authoritative place to confirm the state half of the two-step recording obligation that the BLM pages do not cover.
Numbers worth knowing
Each one carries its source
BLM's published schedule for claims filed on or after 1 September 2024. The federal cost per new claim at location, before any staking labour, county recording or state map fees; placer maintenance is assessed per 20 acres, so a 160-acre association claim carries eight maintenance units.
sourceThe federal window to record a located claim or site with BLM; miss it and "you will forfeit your mining claims or sites" (§ 3830.91(a)(1)). Many states impose their own 90-day county recording deadline on top of this.
sourceThe statutory size limits under 43 CFR 3832 that dictate how many claims a target area actually needs — and therefore your real annual maintenance bill.
sourceThe annual maintenance arithmetic: the waiver is only available if each claimant holds 10 or fewer non-closed claims on federal land nationwide, and it buys a work obligation rather than freedom from obligation.
sourceA concrete illustration that the state layer is separate, differently timed and separately priced from the federal layer — do not assume any other state's deadlines or fees match these.
sourceHow this goes wrong
The specific traps, not general advice
- Recording with the county and assuming that is the whole job: the BLM filing is a separate obligation with its own 90-day deadline under 43 CFR 3830.91, and missing it forfeits the claim outright no matter how clean the county record is.
- Missing the September 1 maintenance deadline, or relying on a small-miner waiver while holding more than 10 non-closed claims nationwide across affiliated entities — the waiver is void, the fee was never paid, and the claims are subject to forfeiture by operation of law with no cure.
- Staking to a generic national template instead of the specific state's monumenting statute, so the monuments, notice contents or map scale are non-compliant and a later locator or a court treats the location as invalid.
- Buying claims on the strength of a claim list and a map without a chain-of-title review, then inheriting a gap in the assessment-work or fee history that voided the claims years earlier — the seller's claims were dead when you paid for them.
- Negotiating a surface use agreement after mobilising equipment rather than before, which hands the surface owner all the leverage, and having a landman rather than a state-licensed attorney draft an instrument that has to survive a dispute.
Questions to ask before you sign
- Will you pull the land status yourself, or rely on what I give you?
- Who is responsible for the 1 September filing, and how is it confirmed?
- Can you produce a title opinion, or do you work alongside counsel?
Where to next
Engineering & permitting
Mine design, NEPA, water and air permits
PreviousExploration & geophysics
Surveys, geochem, remote sensing and target generation
Free listingWork in this trade?
List your business here at no cost. Every submission is read by a person before it goes up.
Every figure and requirement on this page is linked to the agency, standard or register it came from. Nothing here is legal advice, rules change, and a link is worth more than our summary of it — follow them.
