*HOW TO STAKE A MINING CLAIM

There are two types of mining claims, lode and placer.
There are two other types of mineral entries, mill sites and tunnel sites.

Lode Claims: Deposits subject to lode claims include classic veins or lodes having well-defined boundaries. They also include other rock in-place bearing valuable minerals and may be broad zones of mineralized rock.

Examples include quartz or other veins bearing gold or other metallic minerals and large volume, but low-grade disseminated metallic deposits.

Lode claims are usually described as parallelograms with the longer side lines parallel to the vein or lode. Descriptions are by metes and bounds surveys (giving length and direction of each boundary line).

Federal statute limits their size to a maximum of 1,500 feet in length along the vein or lode. Their width is a maximum of 600 feet, 300 feet on either side of the centerline of the vein or lode.

The end lines of the lode claim must be parallel to qualify for underground extralateral rights. Extralateral rights involve the rights to minerals that extend at depth beyond the vertical boundaries of the claim.