CLAIMING GOLD DEPOSITS: As an active member, you have the right to prospect and mine anywhere along our properties as long as your activity does not seriously inhibit the mining operations of someone who was prospecting in the area first (members or registered guests), and as long as you follow the our Operation Rules. This means, in dredging, if you start mining and cloud-out someone else downstream with your tailings discharge, and the other person was there first, you will have to move elsewhere or make different arrangements so the other operation is not seriously inhibited.
On the other hand, since this is a prospecting organization whose purpose is to provide better mining opportunities for all our members, there has to be a significant reason why someone else is inhibiting your operation in order to make them stop. We always have to keep in mind that we are participating in an organization where we are “miners helping miners.”
If you locate a gold deposit, you have the right to claim the deposit–or at least a portion of it. A person working up on land is entitled to claim a 30 foot radius from the location he or she is actively mining. If you are there first, and another member or registered guest wishes to prospect or mine in the area, please mark your 60-foot circle boundary so they can see where your claim ends.
Each (actively mining) membership is able to claim 60 linear feet of the Klamath, Scott or Salmon River from one bank out to the middle when doing underwater mining, or 60 linear feet of Indian, Elk or Thompson Creeks. Claim boundaries should be neatly marked with flags or buoys.
A person must be actively mining or be actively moving equipment to the location in order to claim it. Equipment sitting idle for a week or more constitutes abandonment of any right to claim that area until the person resumes mining activity. If another member starts prospecting activity in any area abandoned by someone else, the new person has a right to claim it.
There can be some exceptions to this one-week rule, as in the case when there is an emergency which needs to be handled, or the person is doing some volunteer work for our organization. Special cases must be approved by New 49’er management or by contacting our Director of Internal Affairs.
Our intent is to leave all our mining property open to all members, while at the same time giving each individual the right to mine any deposit that you locate.
Commercial-scale activities operating on New 49’er property are generally entitled to larger-sized claims. These are negotiated with our management on an individual basis, and claim-rights are maintained by the commercial operation paying the weekly 10% royalty.
Individual claims must be marked either with flags on the bank or buoys in the water, placed neatly and in a manner not unsightly or hazardous to other river users. Usually, claims are marked by showing the upper and lower boundaries on the creek or river. Claim markers are used so other members or guests looking for a place to mine can see which areas are already claimed by others.
Please remove your claim markers when you leave an area. Claim markers in an area with no equipment present, are not valid unless the person is actively moving equipment to that location.