Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources Circulars

              Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Resources
1502 West Washington, Phoenix, AZ 85007 Phone (602) 771-1601
1-800-446-4259 in Arizona FAX (602) 771-1616 www.mines.az.gov
ARIZONA LAND OWNERSHIP STATUS
Circular No. 2, Revised July 2009
By Ken A. Phillips, Chief Engineer
Ownership of land and mineral rights in Arizona
and its related mineral entry status is complex. It is
impossible to make a general statement that will
provide a key to the surface and subsurface status
of lands. The complex nature of land and mineral
entry status is further intensified by the fact that in
many areas the surface and mineral rights are un-der
separate ownership.
This paper will outline the procedure by which the
ownership and mineral entry status of any particu-lar
land may be determined. However, no proce-dure
can guarantee the exact location, presence,
absence or validity of unpatented mining claims
on Federal land open to mineral entry. Actual
determination of the presence and validity of min-ing
claims require both a detailed search of the
records and on the ground. Further, even though
procedures to prevent errors in official records are
adhered to by all agencies involved, occasionally
errors are discovered.
Detailed information on land, mineral rights and
water rights title data is available in a booklet en-titled
Manual for Determination of Status and
Ownership, Arizona Mineral and Water Rights.
Detailed information on acquiring mining rights is
given in Laws and Regulations Governing Mineral
Rights in Arizona. Both booklets are available from
the Arizona Department of Mines and Mineral Re-sources,
1502 W. Washington, Phoenix, Arizona
85007.
The following steps may be followed to determine
land status for the purpose of determining if land is
open for mining claims, state leases or is private
land.
First
Determine the exact description of the lands of
interest by legal subdivision of the Public Land
Survey (township, range, section, and subdivision
within the section). The details of the Public Land
Survey are described in the figures of this circular.
Second
Contact the United States Bureau of Land Management
(BLM) Arizona State Office, One North Central Suite
800 Phoenix, AZ 85004. This BLM office may also be
contacted by telephone at (602) 417-9200. Request the
surface and mineral status of the area of interest in terms
of the legal subdivision by Public Land Survey. The of-fice
will give you the surface and subsurface designa-tions
applicable. Further, if the surface is under Federal
control, the administering agency will be given. If the
mineral rights are held by the Federal government, the
mineral entry status will also be given. Because Federal
law requires mining claims on Federal minerals to be
filed with the BLM within 90 days of the date of loca-tion,
the presence or absence of claims over 90 days old
can also be determined from the BLM. The presence or
absence of unpatented mining claims, less than 90 days
old, cannot necessarily be determined from the BLM.
ADMMR
6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1
7 8 9 10 11 12 7 8 9 10 11 12
18 17 16 15 14 13 18 17 16 15 14 13 T
19 20 21 22 23 24 19 20 21 22 23 24 5
30 29 28 27 26 25 30 29 28 27 26 25 N
31 32 33 34 35 36 31 32 33 34 35 36
6 5 4 3 2 1 6 5 4 3 2 1
7 8 9 10 11 12 7 8 9 10 11 12
18 17 16 15 14 13 18 17 16 15 14 13 T
19 20 21 22 23 24 19 20 21 22 23 24 4
30 29 28 27 26 25 30 29 28 27 26 25 N
31 32 33 34 35 36 31 32 33 34 35 36
R 2 E R 3 E
Figure 1. Example of four townships each con-taining
36 square miles or sections. An ideal sec-tion
has 640 acres.
The surface ownership and the mineral status will
generally fall into one of the following groupings.
Surface
􀂃􈍐 Public Land (U.S. Bureau of Land Manage-ment
or U.S. Forest Service Administration)
􀂃􈍓 State Trust Lands
􀂃􈍐 Private ownership (also small tracts of Federal,
State, county, city and other specialty designa-tions)
􀂃􈍓 Special Use Federal Lands (National Parks,
Indian Reservations, military bases and gunnery
ranges, wildlife preserves, etc.)
Subsurface (mineral status)
􀂃􈍏 Open to entry under the U.S. General Mining
and Mineral Leasing laws.
􀂃􈍏 Open to entry under the U.S. General Mining
and Mineral Leasing laws with restrictions.
􀂃􈍗 Withdrawn from entry under the U.S. General
Mining and/or Mineral Leasing laws. (Claim stak-ing
and mineral leasing prohibited)
􀂃􈍍 Mineral rights held by the State.
􀂃􈍐 Privately owned mineral rights.
If the information given by the BLM indicates that
the land and/or mineral rights of interest are either
private or State, the remaining steps may need to
be followed.
Third
If the lands in question have been deeded to the
State of Arizona, (State lands), the State Land De-partment,
1616 W. Adams, Phoenix, AZ 85007,
(602) 542-4631, should be contacted as to the sur-face
and mineral status under their jurisdiction.
Some lands originally deeded to the state have
been subsequently transferred to private owner-ship.
Some have also been traded back to the Fed-eral
government.
Fourth
If the lands of interest are now known to be private, the
County Assessor's Office for the county in which the
lands are situated may be contacted to determine the
landowner. Please note: The county records, as they
pertain to land ownership, begin with the recording of a
patent (deed) from the United States or a deed from the
State. The county records do not show statutory nor
administrative proceedings relating to mineral or sur-face
status prior to issuance of patent. Whether or not
Federal land is open or closed under the mining laws
cannot be determined from the county recorder.
NW NE
40A
NE NW
40A
NW NE
40A
NE NE
40A
NW NE
40A
NE NW
40A W½
NE¼
E½
NE¼
SW NW
40A
SE NW
40A
SW NE
40A
SE NE
40A
SW NW
40A
SE NW
40A
80A 80A
NW SW
40A
NE SW
40A
NW SE
40A
NE SE
40A
N½
80
SW¼
A SE ¼
SW SW
40A
SE SW
40A
SW SE
40A
SE SE
40A
S½S
80
W¼
A
160 A
1 section 1 section
Figure 2. Legal subdivisions of a section with size in acres.
Sections may be divided in similar manner into smaller frac-tions.
For example a placer claim is 20 acres in size and
could be described as the S½SW¼NE¼ of Section 5, Range
3 East, Township 4 North, G.S.R.B. & M.
For information about accessing land and mineral
records on line see circular 126 Guide to Online Land
Status Records 2007.
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