A land claim is "the pursuit of recognized territorial ownership by a group or individual". The phrase is usually only used with respect to disputed or unresolved land claims. Some types of land claims include
aboriginal land claims,
Antarctic land claims, and post-colonial land claims.
The term is also sometimes used when referring to disputed territories like
Western Sahara
Western Sahara is a territorial dispute, disputed territory in Maghreb, North-western Africa. It has a surface area of . Approximately 30% of the territory () is controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR); the remaining 70% is ...
or to refer to the claims of displaced persons.
In the
colonial times of the United States, American men could claim a piece of land for themselves and the claim has different level of merit according to the
de facto conditions:
# claim without any action on the ground
# claim with (movable) property of the claimant on the ground
# claim with the claimant visiting the land
# claim with claimant living on the land.
Today, only small areas of unclaimed land remain, yet large plots of land with little economical value (e.g., in Alaska) can still be bought for very low prices. Also, in certain parts of the world, land can still be
obtained by making productive use of it.
Mining claim (United States)
A mining claim is the claim of the right to extract minerals from a tract of public land. In the United States, the practice began with the
California gold rush
The California gold rush (1848–1855) began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California from the rest of the U ...
of 1849. In the absence of organized government, the miners in each new mining camp made up their own rules, and to a large extent adopted Mexican mining law. The Mexican law gave the right to mine to the first one to discover the mineral deposit and begin mining it. The area that could be claimed by one person was limited to that which could be mined by a single individual or a small group.
The US system of mining claims is an application of the legal theory of ''
prior appropriation'', by which public property is granted to the first one to put it to beneficial use. Other applications of appropriation theory were the
Homestead Act
The Homestead Acts were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of Federal lands, government land or the American frontier, public domain, typically called a Homestead (buildings), homestead. In all, mo ...
, which granted public land to farmers, and water rights in the west.
The California miners spread the concept of mining claims to other mining districts all over the western United States. The US Congress legalized the practice in 1866, and amended it in the
Mining Act of 1872. All land in the
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no Exclusive exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly Waiver, waived, or may be inapplicable. Because no one holds ...
, that is, federal land whose use has not been restricted by the government to some specific purpose, was subject to being claimed. The mining law has been changed numerous times, but still retains some features similar to those settled on by the California
49ers.
The concept was also used in other countries, for example during the
Australian gold rushes
During the Australian gold rushes, starting in 1851, significant numbers of workers moved from elsewhere in History of Australia, Australia and overseas to where gold had been discovered. Gold had been found several times before, but the Colo ...
which occurred at a similar time starting from the 1850s, and included similar groups of people including miners that migrated from the American gold rushes. The
Oriental Claims
The Oriental Claims are a former gold mining operation, or Land claim#Mining claim (United States), claim, located 2 km south of Omeo, Victoria, Australia. The Oriental Claims are named in reference to The Oriental Company which mined in the ...
in
Victoria are one example of this.
Staking a claim

Staking a claim involves first the discovery of a valuable mineral in quantities that a "prudent man" (the Prudent Man Rule) would invest time and expenses to recover. Next, marking the claim boundaries, typically with wooden posts or capped steel posts, which must be four feet tall, or stone cairns, which must be three feet tall. Finally, filing a claim with both the land management agency (USFS or BLM), and the local county registrar.
There are four main types of mining claims:
# Placer (minerals free of the local bedrock, and deposited in benches or streams)
# Lode (minerals in place in the mother rock),
# Tunnel (a location for a proposed tunnel which claims all veins discovered during the driving of it)
# Millsite (a maximum five-acre site for processing ore)
A mining claim always starts out as an unpatented claim. The owner of an unpatented claim must continue mining or exploration activities on an unpatented claim, or he may pay a fee to the land management agency by September 1 of each year, or it is considered abandoned and becomes null. Activities on unpatented claims must be restricted to those necessary to mining. A patented claim is one for which the federal government has issued a patent (deed). To obtain a patent, the owner of a mining claim must prove to the federal government that the claim contains locatable minerals that can be extracted at a profit. A patented claim can be used for any purpose desired by the owner, just like any other real estate. However, Congress has ceased funding for the patenting process, so at this time a claim cannot be patented.
Claim jumping
A dispute when one party (a "claim jumper") attempts to seize the land on which another party has already made claim is known as "claim jumping".
See also
*
Gold placer claim
A placer claim is a mining claim on gravel or ground from which minerals are extracted using water. In the United States, the valuable mineral in a placer claim is almost always gold, although other nations mine placer deposits of platinum, tin, a ...
*
Indigenous land claims in Canada
*
Indigenous specific land claims in Canada
Indigenous specific land claims in Canada, also called specific claims, are long-standing land claims made by First Nations against the Government of Canada pertaining to Canada's legal obligations to indigenous communities.
They relate to the a ...
*
Land grant
A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
*
Land rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these kinds of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use ...
*
Land reform
Land reform (also known as agrarian reform) involves the changing of laws, regulations, or customs regarding land ownership, land use, and land transfers. The reforms may be initiated by governments, by interested groups, or by revolution.
Lan ...
* ''
Terra nullius
''Terra nullius'' (, plural ''terrae nullius'') is a Latin expression meaning " nobody's land".
Since the nineteenth century it has occasionally been used in international law as a principle to justify claims that territory may be acquired ...
'' (no man's land)
*
Guano Islands Act
*
Extraterrestrial real estate
*
Claim club
*
Land reform in South Africa
Land reform in South Africa refers to efforts by the government to address historical injustices related to land ownership, particularly through land restitution, redistribution, and tenure reform. One key objective is to empower farm workers— ...
References
{{reflist
Geography terminology
Mining