Title 30, Mineral Lands and MiningRelease 119-110

§612 Unpatented Mining Claims

Title 30 › CHAPTER 15 — SURFACE RESOURCES › SUBCHAPTER II — MINING LOCATIONS › § 612

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

A mining claim filed under federal mining laws can only be used, until it is officially patented, for searching for minerals, mining, processing, and reasonable activities tied to those jobs. The United States keeps the right to manage or sell the plants and other surface resources on that land (not the minerals). The government and people it allows can use as much of the surface as needed for those purposes or to get to nearby land, but their use must not endanger or seriously interfere with the claimant’s mining or related work. If the government has already taken timber from the claim and the claimant needs more for mining, the claimant can get matching timber free from the nearest federal timber area that is ready to be cut. A claimant may only cut or remove surface vegetation or timber to the extent needed for mining, buildings, or clearing, or if the government allows it. Any allowed timber cutting (except clearing) must follow sound forest-management practices. The law does not change state water rules in states wholly or partly west of the 98th meridian.

Full Legal Text

Title 30, §612

Mineral Lands and Mining, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Prospecting, mining or processing operations

Any mining claim hereafter located under the mining laws of the United States shall not be used, prior to issuance of patent therefor, for any purposes other than prospecting, mining or processing operations and uses reasonably incident thereto.

(b)Reservations in the United States to use of the surface and surface resources

Rights under any mining claim hereafter located under the mining laws of the United States shall be subject, prior to issuance of patent therefor, to the right of the United States to manage and dispose of the vegetative surface resources thereof and to manage other surface resources thereof (except mineral deposits subject to location under the mining laws of the United States). Any such mining claim shall also be subject, prior to issuance of patent therefor, to the right of the United States, its permittees, and licensees, to use so much of the surface thereof as may be necessary for such purposes or for access to adjacent land: Provided, however, That any use of the surface of any such mining claim by the United States, its permittees or licensees, shall be such as not to endanger or materially interfere with prospecting, mining or processing operations or uses reasonably incident thereto: Provided further, That if at any time the locator requires more timber for his mining operations than is available to him from the claim after disposition of timber therefrom by the United States, subsequent to the location of the claim, he shall be entitled, free of charge, to be supplied with timber for such requirements from the nearest timber administered by the disposing agency which is ready for harvesting under the rules and regulations of that agency and which is substantially equivalent in kind and quantity to the timber estimated by the disposing agency to have been disposed of from the claim: Provided further, That nothing in this subchapter and section 601 and 603 of this title shall be construed as affecting or intended to affect or in any way interfere with or modify the laws of the States which lie wholly or in part westward of the ninety-eighth meridian relating to the ownership, control, appropriation, use, and distribution of ground or surface waters within any unpatented mining claim.

(c)Severance or removal of timber

Except to the extent required for the mining claimant’s prospecting, mining or processing operations and uses reasonably incident thereto, or for the construction of buildings or structures in connection therewith, or to provide clearance for such operations or uses, or to the extent authorized by the United States, no claimant of any mining claim hereafter located under the mining laws of the United States shall, prior to issuance of patent therefor, sever, remove, or use any vegetative or other surface resources thereof which are subject to management or disposition by the United States under the preceding subsection (b). Any severance or removal of timber which is permitted under the exceptions of the preceding sentence, other than severance or removal to provide clearance, shall be in accordance with sound principles of forest management.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

30 U.S.C. § 612

Title 30, Mineral Lands and Mining

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110