Colorado Placer Gold Mine Mineral Creek Mining Claim Silver Panning Sluice Snipe

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South Fork Mineral Creek Mine
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CUNNINGHAM GOLD MINING CLAIM
This 20 acre placer claim is fairly easy to access off hwy 145. It is located in San Juan County, Colorado. This claim spans over 982 feet of river to work at your leisure. You don't need to pull any permits to dredge as long as the intake line on the dredge is less than 4” and you aren't  causing surface disturbance. Remember to stick existing roads and don't damage vegetation. If you have questions please feel free to direct them to the district's BLM geologist.
QUICK FACTS ON THE MINE:
Commodities:
Primary Gold / Secondary Silver
County:
San Juan, CO
Elevation:
8,442 feet (2,573 meters)
Cell Coverage:
Verizon coverage is spotty here. On a couple of higher spots the team got 1 bar of 3G coverage. If you travel about 4 miles south, you pick up good Verizon 4G/LTE coverage
During the second rush to Baker's Park (Silverton) in the 1870's placer mining had given way to lode mining as the source of the gold in the creeks was tracked to the high outcroppings along the slopes of the valleys. During this second rush many silver veinswere discovered as well as a few gold veins. In 1873 Henry F. Tower and Wesley A. Stevens brought the first sawmill into the Animas River area and assembled the mill on Mineral Creek where many straight spruce and fir trees grew. The sawmill saw instant success and could not keep up with demand.
In 1882 gold was discovered along South Mineral Creek. The Bandora Mine was established on the northern slope of Fuller Peak and a small community developed. In 1890, William Sullivan began developing the Bandora Mine, which proved rich silver ore. He sold it in 1891 to investors that organized the Bandora Mining & Milling Company.
The road cuts through this claim
The creek ranges in width from a few feet to more than 20  feet wide. In some spots where it pools, you'll have close to 50 foot wide  moving pools. The depth ranges from 9 to 12 inches all the way up to probably 5  to 6 feet deep in spots.
Buyer will receive the following with their completed transaction:
Quitclaim deed showing full ownership of the claim. This will be stamped, recorded and verified with the County and the BLM offices.
Welcome packet with all of the rules and regulations as they relate to the State and BLM where the claim is located.
Educational documents to annually renew your mining claim with the BLM.
A CD of all of the documented images of the claim including maps of the site.
Map of claim marked and GPS coordinates.
Multiple maps showing claim location and surrounding areas for access.
This valley was actually carved by ancient  glaciers. It is what has deposited the gold here and made it such a productive  area for mining.
Come to Hike, Camp, Ride and Shoot - or come to pull some shiny rock$ out of the ground;-)
The bottom of the creek is made up of sand and gravel. Our team noted seeing lots of black sands in the bends, and plenty of exposed bedrock scattered throughout the claim.
SOUTH FORK MINERAL CREEK MINING
Mining operators in the San Juan mountain area of Colorado formed the San Juan District Mining Association (SJDMA) in 1903, as a direct result of a Western Federation of Miners proposal to the Telluride Mining Association for the eight-hour day, which had been approved in a referendum by 72 percent of Colorado voters. The new association consolidated the power of thirty-six mining properties in San Miguel, Ouray, and San Juan counties. The SJDMA refused to consider any reduction in hours or increase in wages, helping to provoke a bitter strike.
The San Juan Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in the Rocky Mountains in southwestern Colorado, and is the largest mountain range in Colorado by area. The area is highly mineralized (the Colorado Mineral Belt) and figured in the gold and silver mining industry of early Colorado. Major towns, all old mining camps, include Creede, Lake City, Silverton, Ouray, and Telluride. Large scale mining has ended in the region, although independent prospectors still work claims throughout the range.
COUNTY HISTORY:
A major producer, San Juan County yielded 1,665,000 ounces of lode gold through 1959. An estimated 500 troy ounces of placer gold have been recovered in San Juan County, with the upper Animas River above Silverton the main placer location. A tributary of the Animas River, Cement Creek, once had limited but fairly rich placers, and should not be ignored if you're in the area.
ACCESS
The location of the claim is about 7 miles west from the town of Silverton. The main road that leads you to the mine is Co Rd 7/Forest Rd 585. This road is 4WD recommended, although it is a big dirt road, you may be able to reach the claim with 2WD, but the best suggestion would be to check the road conditions before you head out. The Forest Rd 585 also goes through the claim, for easy parking and easy access. From the road to the creek it is about 300-400 feet depending where you park. There is enough room and flat space to park a camper or trailer.
*Before heading to the claim, you will need to check the road conditions, since some of the roads can be closed different times and days
The area is full of dirt roads, so a good map and a good GPS unit is a must, but we'll show you exactly where it is on the map as well as provide you with the precise latitude and longitude of each corner marker, so finding it will not be a problem for you.
I advise caution whenever driving or hiking on this claim – the entire valley is dotted with abandoned mines – most of them are easy to see from a distance, but some of them are impossible to see until you are right on top of them. I would estimate that only 20% of them are roped or fenced off – the rest are wide open and you should be extremely careful if entering them.
A couple of spare tires or an air compressor and patch kit or at least a couple of cans of tire sealant is strongly recommended for obvious reasons! Also, be sure to bring in whatever water you may need, as there are almost no water sources in the area 10 months out of the year.
Mining claims are a tangible asset just like any other Real property (real estate) and show a lifetime proof of all interests in minerals in the area specified by the above claim. Once you own this claim and the associated mineral rights, you will own them for life as long as you keep up with the annual fees. This claim can be bought, sold, leased or used as collateral, just like any other piece of real estate.
A mining claim can be willed or passed down to future generations as part of a trust or your estate, or you can trade it, lease it out for a period or time (or indefinitely), gift it to a family member or friend and you can also transfer or sell just an interest in it in part or in its entirety just like any other real property using a quitclaim deed which is a recordable conveyance. In other words, you could sell a 25% or a 50% share in it if you wanted in order to bring on a partner in the future - or you could sell the entire claim in whole.
This Buy-It-Now is for full/all interest in this 20 acre placer mining claim (unless the acreage indicated in the above mine description is different). This claim covers the entire site, (unless the claim description above describes different measurements), and includes full rights to all minerals, gems and just about whatever else you may find of value on the property (except oil and gas, which are handled separately). The buyer will receive a notarized quitclaim deed to the full claim and all associated documentation showing full ownership of the claim. We pay ALL fees associated with transferring this claim into your name - legal fees, title transfer fees, document fees, notary costs, recording fees and even shipping fees, so all you will pay is the final price of the auction, not a penny more.
In order to hold on to your claim for life, you will need to pay an annual maintenance fee to the Government (BLM, not us) every year.  Currently the maintenance fee is 5 per year per claim that you own, and it is due on September 1st of every year.
NOTE that if you own fewer than 10 claims nationwide, we can assist you in filing the paperwork to waive the maintenance fee every year. That means you will only pay per year for your maintenance fee instead of 5.  We guarantee that all past fees have been paid in full and there are no outstanding debts or amounts owed on the claim prior to the transfer of ownership into your name.
The federal government retains ownership of the land - so this means that you will not have any annual real estate taxes due on your mining claim, and you will not have to maintain liability insurance in case someone gets injured on your claim due to no fault of your own.
How do Transfers of Ownership in Mining Claims work if I decide to sell my claim in the future?
First, we handle all the paperwork and costs associated with transferring this claim into your name. But if you decide to sell this claim at some point in the future, interest in a properly recorded mining claim or site may be transferred (i.e sold) in part or its entirety. A quitclaim deed or recordable conveyance document is required and if you do sell your claim someday and the transfer documents should be filed within 60 days after the transfer.
We can and will help you with the paperwork for no cost should you need a hand selling your claim in the future if you pay all of the County, State and Federal fees (usually less than to ).
But again - with regard to transferring this claim initially into your name, we take care of all the paperwork at our expense. You do not have to worry about anything. we handle the BLM transfer documentation and the county recording.
Can you build / camp on your claim?
Without an approved plan of operations, you have the same rights and restrictions as the public. If the area is open to camping to the public, then it is permissible. However, you need to check with the BLM Field Office or the local District Ranger for areas open to camping. Under Federal law in order to occupy the public lands under the mining laws for more than 14 calendar days in any 90 day period, a claimant must be involved in certain activities that (a) are reasonably incident; (b) constitute substantially regular work; (c) are reasonably calculated to lead to the extraction and beneficiation of minerals; (d) involve observable on-the-ground activity that can be verified; and (e) use appropriate equipment that is presently operable, subject to the need for reasonable assembly, maintenance, repair or fabrication of replacement parts. All five of these requirements must be met for occupancy to be permissible.
Although it is possible to build a permanent structure on a mining claim, it is extremely expensive and you will have to jump through way too many hoops to consider it easy to do. It would have to be in support of a commercial, year-round mining operation for starters, and you would need to post a large reclamation bond to insure that if you ever abandoned your claim, the bond would pay for the removal of the structure and the reclamation or the area. So in short, it is technically possible to build on your mining claim, but just be aware that it is very difficult and expensive to do - however, camping is almost always involved unless your claim is in a wilderness area, which is not very common at all.
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In addition to handling all of the paperwork to transfer this claim into your name, as well as paying all of the fees so you do not have any costs, we also pay all of the costs associated with mailing the paperwork to you as well as to the County and Federal Government for recording and sending you back certified copies.
We will ship you a folder with all paperwork, claim coordinates, maps and information on your claim, including a CD-Rom with all of the pictures of your claim upon your payment in full clearing.  We ship everything to you the same business day (if payment is received by 1:00 PM Pacific Standard Time) - and we will always provide you with the tracking information so you are always informed.
You initial claim packet that we mail has an unrecorded deed so that you can show ownership immediately after payment and be able to visit your claim. A second original deed goes to the County for recording the same day, and a third original deed goes to the BLM for certification as well.  Both of those originals will be returned to you so you will wind up with several original deeds - but the County and BLM deeds can take 3 to 6 weeks to be returned to you, which is why we send you the initial original on day one.
Your payment of this eBay Buy It Now item in full gives you 100% ownership of this entire claim, with no other fees and/or other costs for the transfer of ownership required. This is NOT for the down payment, this is NOT a partnership arrangement where someone else will own part of the claim with you, and there are NO other fees or costs for the transfer of this claim in your name.
eBay does not allow checkout on the eBay website for any Real Estate transactions - simply because it is not like selling a widget - the transfer of real estate is complicated and requires notary work, licensed professionals and recording. Note that this is eBay’s rules and not ours and it is the same for any mining claim seller on eBay
We also are not able to accept PayPal payments for mining claims, as claims are real estate and PayPal does not allow payments to be made on any real estate items, including single family homes, condos, mining claim or land purchases. We DO accept just about every other kind of payment method you can think of: Personal Checks, Business Checks, Cashier's Checks, Money Orders, Bank Wires, ACH payments, Direct Bank Deposit at any Bank of America Branch, Gold or Silver Bullion (at the day’s SPOT prices), etc. After the auction close, we will send you a secure link to handle the payment safely online if you prefer, and we can also take care of payment by mail or telephone, as we are a traditional Brick and Mortar business - so whichever method you prefer is perfectly fine with us.
We provide financing plans with no interest or fees. Financing terms are minimum of 0 down with the balance will due within 90-days via three equal monthly payments of the remaining balance after the down payment has been paid.
With all financing plans, we do not transfer the final deed into your name until the claim has been paid in full. In the event of a default on a payment plan, we do not refund your down payment - however, we do allow you to put that down payment towards any other purchase as a store credit in full. If you are financing a climate and there is less than 90 days until September 1st (i.e. from June 1st through September 1st), when the annual fee for mining claims is due to the Federal Government, we will add the 5 maintenance fee to your down payment and pay it to the BLM on your behalf thereby increasing your down payment to 5 instead of 0 - however, the 5 portion of the down payment does not go towards your principle balance since it is used to pay the annual fees to the government, therefore the actual down payment credit will still be 0. Approval for financing is automatic as long as you have a valid eBay account in good standing.