[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog-\u002Fblog\u002Fmining-claims-on-blm-land-plss-legal-descriptions-and-43-cfr-location-notice-requirements":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"cover":148,"date":149,"description":150,"draft":151,"extension":152,"meta":153,"navigation":156,"path":157,"seo":158,"stem":159,"tags":160,"__hash__":166},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fmining-claims-on-blm-land-plss-legal-descriptions-and-43-cfr-location-notice-requirements.md","Mining Claims on BLM Land: PLSS Legal Descriptions and 43 CFR Location Notice Requirements",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":138},"minimark",[9,13,18,21,24,28,31,48,51,55,58,62,65,97,100,104,118,122,135],[10,11,12],"p",{},"A mining claim on federal land is only as good as the description that ties it to the ground. Locate a lode or placer claim on public domain land the Bureau of Land Management administers, and you have to record it with the BLM. That recordation turns on a PLSS legal description: the state, principal meridian, township, range, section, and the aliquot parts your claim covers. Get the description wrong and you expose the claim to an adverse filing, a BLM notice of deficiency, or a determination that the location was never valid. This post covers what 43 CFR recordation asks for, where descriptions go wrong, and how to generate and verify one before you file.",[14,15,17],"h2",{"id":16},"why-every-mining-claim-needs-a-plss-legal-description","Why every mining claim needs a PLSS legal description",[10,19,20],{},"Two separate steps create a valid federal mining claim. First you locate the claim on the ground under the mining law of the state it sits in, which usually means posting a notice, setting monuments, and recording with the county. Second, under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, you record the claim with the BLM within 90 days of the date of location. The BLM regulations for locating and recording claims at 43 CFR 3832 and 3833 are where the PLSS description matters most.",[10,22,23],{},"The BLM keys its records to the Public Land Survey System. Your claim has to be described by aliquot part (giving the section, township, range, and principal meridian) so the agency can index it against every other claim, lease, and withdrawal in that section. A description that reads clearly to you but does not resolve to a specific PLSS position is not enough.",[14,25,27],{"id":26},"lode-versus-placer-how-aliquot-parts-describe-the-claim","Lode versus placer: how aliquot parts describe the claim",[10,29,30],{},"The claim type changes how the description behaves.",[32,33,34,42],"ul",{},[35,36,37,41],"li",{},[38,39,40],"strong",{},"Placer claims"," are taken by aliquot part wherever the land has been surveyed. An individual placer claim may cover up to 20 acres, such as a half of a quarter-quarter section. A full 40-acre quarter-quarter exceeds the individual claim limit. An association of locators can hold more, still in conforming subdivisions. Because placer claims follow the survey, the aliquot description is the claim: the SE¼NE¼ of a section is a 40-acre parcel with a known boundary.",[35,43,44,47],{},[38,45,46],{},"Lode claims"," follow the vein, not the survey grid, and are limited to 1,500 feet along the strike by 600 feet in width. You still record a lode claim against the section, township, range, and meridian it falls in, and you describe its position within that section. The aliquot call locates the claim inside the PLSS even though the claim boundary itself does not snap to subdivision lines.",[10,49,50],{},"In both cases the principal meridian is not optional. The same township and range numbers repeat under different meridians across the West, so \"Township 18 North, Range 45 East\" only becomes a single place once you attach the Mount Diablo Meridian to it.",[14,52,54],{"id":53},"what-blm-recordation-expects","What BLM recordation expects",[10,56,57],{},"For surveyed public land, the BLM wants the claim described by aliquot part to the smallest subdivision that fits, tied to the section, township, range, and principal meridian. For land that has not been surveyed, you describe the claim by metes and bounds tied to an official survey corner or a prominent, permanent natural object, so the position can still be recovered. Lode recordation also expects a sketch or map showing the claim in relation to the section and to natural features. None of this asks you to run the survey yourself. It asks you to state, precisely, where the claim sits in the PLSS, and to back that up with coordinates and a boundary a reviewer can plot.",[14,59,61],{"id":60},"description-errors-that-trigger-a-contest-or-invalidation","Description errors that trigger a contest or invalidation",[10,63,64],{},"Most description problems fall into a short list, and each one is avoidable:",[32,66,67,73,79,85,91],{},[35,68,69,72],{},[38,70,71],{},"Missing or wrong principal meridian."," The most common defect. Without it, the township and range point to several places at once.",[35,74,75,78],{},[38,76,77],{},"Aliquot parts that do not close."," Calling a quarter-quarter that does not exist in that section, or stacking subdivisions that overrun the section boundary.",[35,80,81,84],{},[38,82,83],{},"Placer acreage over the statutory limit."," Describing more than an individual or association can hold, which the BLM will flag.",[35,86,87,90],{},[38,88,89],{},"A description that disagrees with the sketch."," When the written aliquot call and the plotted map point to different ground, a reviewer or an adverse claimant has an opening.",[35,92,93,96],{},[38,94,95],{},"Stale or transcribed coordinates."," Numbers copied by hand from an old filing that no longer match the recorded description.",[10,98,99],{},"Any of these can draw a notice from the land office or give a competing locator grounds to challenge the claim. The fix is to derive the coordinates and the boundary from the legal description itself, once, and carry the same values everywhere.",[14,101,103],{"id":102},"generating-and-checking-the-coordinates-for-the-sketch-map","Generating and checking the coordinates for the sketch map",[10,105,106,107,112,113,117],{},"This is the step Township America is built for. Enter the legal description and the ",[108,109,111],"a",{"href":110},"\u002Fplss-converter","PLSS converter"," returns the latitude and longitude and the full parcel boundary for that aliquot part, calculated from official BLM survey data across 30+ PLSS states and 37 principal meridians, down to the 1\u002F256 aliquot part, which is about 2.5 acres. If township and range are new territory for you, the ",[108,114,116],{"href":115},"\u002Fguides\u002Ftownship-range-system","township and range guide"," explains how the grid is numbered before you start.",[14,119,121],{"id":120},"surface-management-and-access-before-you-file","Surface management and access before you file",[10,123,124,125,129,130,134],{},"An accurate description tells you where the claim is. It does not tell you whether the land is open to mineral location. Federal parcels can be withdrawn from entry, already claimed, or managed by an agency other than the BLM, and you confirm current entry status against the BLM's own mining claim records. What you can screen up front is the surface: the ",[108,126,128],{"href":127},"\u002Fpricing","Federal Land pack"," on a Pro or Business plan, overlays BLM Surface Management and public access on the parcel, alongside flood, wetlands, soils, and elevation layers, and produces a Federal Land Diligence PDF you can attach to the file. It is a Phase 1 environmental pre-screen, not a substitute for an ASTM E1527-21 Phase 1 ESA, but it answers the first questions a claim buyer or a consultant asks: which agency manages this surface, and can the public reach it. The writeup on ",[108,131,133],{"href":132},"\u002Fblog\u002Fblm-solar-wind-leases-plss-coordinates-siting","BLM solar and wind leases"," covers the same tie between a legal description and a federal filing.",[10,136,137],{},"Start from the description, resolve it to coordinates and a boundary you can verify, and keep those values consistent from the location notice through the sketch to the BLM recordation. That is the difference between a claim that indexes cleanly and one that invites a challenge.",{"title":139,"searchDepth":140,"depth":140,"links":141},"",2,[142,143,144,145,146,147],{"id":16,"depth":140,"text":17},{"id":26,"depth":140,"text":27},{"id":53,"depth":140,"text":54},{"id":60,"depth":140,"text":61},{"id":102,"depth":140,"text":103},{"id":120,"depth":140,"text":121},"\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fmining-claims-on-blm-land-plss-legal-descriptions-and-43-cfr-location-notice-requirements\u002Fcover.webp","2026-09-16T10:00:00Z","A mining claim location notice needs an exact PLSS legal description. Here is how to build and verify one for BLM recordation, and what to check first.",false,"md",{"author":154,"category":155},"Township America","industry",true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fmining-claims-on-blm-land-plss-legal-descriptions-and-43-cfr-location-notice-requirements",{"title":5,"description":150},"blog\u002Fmining-claims-on-blm-land-plss-legal-descriptions-and-43-cfr-location-notice-requirements",[161,162,163,164,165],"mining","plss","blm","legal-descriptions","federal-land","IG3THN3QedwRw7F-6zsBQAfBGNfyLrzO-XErHQhPy4U"]