BLM Launches Mining Claim Records Viewer (LR2000)

BLM Launches Mining Claim Records Viewer

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The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has added some useful tools to their website.

The Land and Mineral Use Records system has been meshed with a map viewer that allows users to obtain mining claim information in a useful format.

The Land and Mineral Use Records application provides:

•An easy-to-use viewer, to spatially or textually locate and display land and mineral use authorization and mining claim parcel information.

•The ability to search the BLM land and mineral use authorization records and mining claims based on user-selected criteria. From the search results, users can zoom to the selected parcel on the map, or link to the record in the BLM LR2000 system reports.

•A display of base maps, including orthophotography, shaded relief, and topo maps, which can be toggled on and off for reference and map creation.

•The ability to create, print, and save maps.

Go to http://www.geocommunicator.gov/NILS-PARCEL2/map.jsp to access the map viewer. By default, the drop-down menu at the top right is set to “Oil and Gas.” Set it to “Mining Claims” if this is your area of interest.

You can search the database by place name or township by clicking on the appropriate button, then narrow down your search by entering more specific information in the search fields.

To give you an idea of what you can expect to find on the website, Figure 1 shows an example of the computer screen during the initial part of the search. Utilizing the drop-down screen to select “Mining Claims” provides this map as a starting point. From this point, you can zoom in on a particular area or select the “place name,” “township,” or “mining claim” buttons to enter search parameters.

Figure 1

I found it useful to zoom in on a particular area of the map using the “zoom in” tool. The tool allows you to zoom in by drawing a box around the area of interest. I was able to view just a few sections on the map and view claimed areas, delineated by black boxes, within those sections. I clicked on the “identify” button, and then clicked on one of the black boxes. This opened a window that listed the claims in that section, their names, dates of location and recordation, claim type (placer or lode), status (open or closed), and a list of actual mining claim reports available online. I selected the first claim on the list and was able to view the complete report on that particular claim.

In Figure 2, the “zoom in” tool provided a close up view displaying sections. Clicking on one of the sections, depicted by black boxes, opened a list of all the claims within that section. From here, you can view a summary of claim information or click on the “LR 2000 SRP” link for a more complete report for each individual claim.

Figure 2