At one time or another, many miners will look seriously at purchasing a mining claim. Buying a placer claim comes with plenty of risks. No one wants to put down a lot of hard-earned cash only to find out the claim doesn’t have much in the way of valuable minerals on it, or that you won’t be able to do the types of prospecting that you were hoping to do on the claim. The potential buyer should try to figure out the mining and prospecting history. Many prospectors (especially new ones) have a more romantic sense of owning a mining claim just for the sake of owning a mining claim.
What exactly do you want to do with your claim?
This is the first and most important question. Yes, of course you want to find gold on it, but what exactly do you want to do? Do you want to use a metal detector to search for nuggets? Do you want to use a high-banker? Or, perhaps, you want to get into the larger-scale commercial side of operations and use heavy equipment like backhoes and bulldozers to set up a trommel operation.
How suitable is it for the uses you intend?
Whatever your goals, make sure that any property you consider for purchase is going to work for the prospecting and mining methods you want to employ. You can camp out on nearly any crown land that is open to claim, and you can even camp on land that is claimed by another person as long as you do not prospect on it. So a mining claim will not give you your own place to camp or fish, and it won’t keep other campers or fishermen off of your claim either.
What valuable minerals are left on it?
This is another important question to ask yourself when considering the purchase of the claim. If you are buying the mineral rights to a property, what value is that property if there is little or no mineral left to extract? A claim that once held rich gold may now be fully mined out. On the other hand, the miners may have left considerable ground that just wasn’t rich enough for them to bother with, but is just fine at today’s prices. What type of placer deposit is it? Is it a stream or bench? The Fraser River is a typical hot spot. Most prospectors will concentrate their efforts at river level or on bedrock out-croppings, yet the benches are seldom worked and may contain sizable amounts of gold.
Are there hand-stacked rocks and old mining equipment as in the photo above? Are there open shafts and prospect pits? Is bedrock exposed in the bottom of the valley? Are there old ditch lines on the hillsides?
Do you have the skills to test it yourself and evaluate the values?
Because the amount of gold or other valuable minerals on the claim is so important—the minerals are actually all that you should be buying —this is another question you must consider. As is the case with the purchase of most properties, you need to investigate and determine what exactly is there. Generally, bulk testing with a high-banker is useless unless you want to determine how much flood gold there is. How deep is bedrock? If it is 25-50 feet to bedrock these bulk tests will not reveal a true picture as to the true potential of the property. The only thing you will accomplish is moving a lot of useless dirt.
What is the access to the claim?
Is it accessed by a good road that is either paved or graded hard dirt? Or is it such that you will have to hike in for a considerable distance or travel cross-country on a quad? Do you have to gain access through private property or native lands. This is very important. Sometimes, remoteness means that there is more gold still left on the claim, but on the other hand, easy access means you can get there and get prospecting quickly without spending a lot of time and effort getting you and your equipment to it. There are many claims that are surrounded by private property, where the only usable road in is through a gate on a private parcel.
Can you maintain the claim rights?
Paperwork and and/or fees must be paid each and every year to hold the claim. If you fail to file the necessary paperwork, the claim will be lost and could be staked by another person. Do you know all of the steps you are required to perform? Are you willing to do all of this paperwork to keep and hold your mining claim?
What is a reasonable price for a particular claim?
This is the last thing that should be considered because all the other facts, such as its suitability for your use and how much gold or other valuable minerals remain on site are the keys to determining the value of the claim. Easy access is something that makes a claim more valuable. Establishing a reasonable sale price on a mining claim is an art. Most claim owners, unless they have a financial problem where they need to sell quickly, will usually value their claim more highly than it is really worth. This is true for many types of property, including commercial properties and homes. The problem with mining claims is that they are very different in value because they are so strongly dependent on the amount of gold or other mineral deposits that remain on the claim and how easily those deposits can be worked.
While every mining claim is unique, a price still needs to be established by comparing other mining claim sales with some adjustment for the nature of important considerations like the amount of mineral remaining, access and legal restrictions.
Do I need to buy a claim?
It is a fact that one does not need to own a claim to find gold. There are a lot of options open to prospectors, including various clubs and organizations, as well as land that is open and has not yet been claimed. In addition, there are public panning reserves throughout the province. It is not mandatory to own a claim to find nice gold, though there are certainly times when it helps a lot, especially if you plan on running equipment.
