Assessment Year: The Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 43 CFR 3830.5 defines the assessment year as 12 consecutive months beginning September 1 each year and ending September 1 the following year.
Maintenance Fee: The current maintenance fee, effective November 7, 2005 is $125 per claim. The fee can be paid in person at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) State office or Fairbanks District office with cash, check or credit card. A list of the serial numbers and claim names must accompany this payment. The payment deadline is on or before September 1 each year and is for the upcoming assessment year.
Maintenance Fee Waiver Certification (Small Miner Waiver): 43 CFR 3835.10 (2) states that the original signatures of the claimants of the mining claims are required on all waiver requests. There is currently no processing fee for filing of this document. When filing a Maintenance Fee Waiver Certification request the filing deadline is on or before September 1 each year and for the upcoming assessment year.
Affidavit of Annual Labor: The BLM does not currently have a federally authorized "Affidavit of Annual Labor" form required for use. The form found at
http://akmining.info/ is acceptable for filing with the BLM. 43 CFR 3835.32 (d) (1) indicates an affidavit of assessment must be an exact legible reproduction or duplicate of the affidavit of assessment work filed
or will be filed in the county (or state) where the claims are located.
43 CFR3836.11 indicates after you locate your mining claim at the beginning of the assessment year, you must expend $100 in labor or improvements for each claim for each assessment year preceding the date on which you file for a small miner waiver. Your total expenditure must equal at least $100 per claim. The current processing fee, effective November 7, 2005 is $10 per claim. The payment deadline is on or before December 30 each year.
Amending Mining Claims and Sites: 43 CFR 3833.20 provides that “you may amend a location notice or certificate of location if – the BLM recognizes the original location as a properly recorded and maintained mining claim or site; and there are omissions or other defects in the original notice or certificate of location that you need to correct or clarify; or you need to correct the legal land description of the claim or site, the mining claim name, or accurately describe the position of discovery or boundary monuments or similar items; or you need to reposition the sidelines of your lode claim so that they are parallel to the discovered lode, ledge, or vein, if there are no intervening rights to the land; or you are reducing the size of the mining claim or site.” The current processing fee, effective November 7, 2005 for amending a mining claim and/or site is $10 per location notice or certificate of location. The amended location notice or certificate of location MUST be recorded with the State of Alaska’s Recorders Office prior to submission to the BLM.
Transfer of Interest (Quit Claim Deed or QCD): 43 CFR 3833.32 (b) indicates you must file in the BLM State Office a notice of the transfer that includes the name and, if available, the serial number the BLM assigned to the claim and/or site when the notice or certificate of location was originally recorded; your name and current mailing address; a COPY of the legal instrument or document that you used to transfer the interest in the claim or site under state law… The BLM’s current processing fee, effective November 7, 2005 is $10 for each transferee for each mining claim and/or site. If two or more transferees are on the same document transferring interest in a mining claim or site, the processing fee of $10 must be received for each transferee. The Transfer of Interest MUST be notarized and recorded with the State of Alaska’s Recorders Office prior to submission to the BLM.
The miner is responsibile to inform the BLM of any changes in his mailing address.
The Code of Federal Regulations that outlines what a miner needs to know and the regulations pertaining to this can be found at http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cfr/index.html. Search for 43 CFR 3840. The case type number for placer claims is 3842 and for lode claims is 3841.
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