Once the open ground is confirmed, the claim layout is designed by hand to capture it efficiently — that judgment does not automate. Everything after it does. Location certificates written to each jurisdiction's statutory requirements, corner cards with GPS coordinates, monument positions computed from that state's own posting rules, a walking order optimized so the crew sets posts in one efficient pass, and recording maps — all generated from one source geometry. The claims are staked and monumented on the ground, then the certificates are recorded with the county recorder and filed with BLM. The package for claim 500 takes the same time to generate as the package for claim 1.
What Ships in a Staking Package
Location Certificates
Complete location certificates for each claim with legal description, PLSS coordinates, claim type, locator information, and all required statutory language for county and BLM filing.
Corner Cards
GPS-accurate corner cards for each claim monument with UTM and lat/long coordinates, bearing and distance ties, and monument descriptions. Ready for field posting.
Claim Maps
Publication-ready maps showing claim boundaries, PLSS grid, monument locations, adjacent claims, and terrain context. Formatted for county recorder filing.
The certificates are written to the statute, not to a template
Every jurisdiction sets its own rules for what a location notice and a recorded certificate must contain, how corners must be monumented, what map has to accompany the recording, and how long you have to record it. They differ in ways that matter: recording windows run from 30 to 90 days depending on the state, some jurisdictions require six or eight monuments where others require four, some require the certificate be sworn before a notary, and several provide that a certificate missing a required element is simply void.
ClaimWatch maintains a verbatim, source-hashed library of the governing federal regulations and every western state's mining claim location and recording statute — the actual text, not a summary of it — and the certificate forms are audited line by line against it. Monument placement in the field applies each state's own posting rules automatically.
We prepare packages across the western United States. If a client needs a jurisdiction or a document the toolchain has not covered before, it gets added — that is generally how the coverage grew in the first place.
Why Automation Matters
Traditional claim staking services prepare each package by hand — drawing boundaries on a topo map, calculating corner coordinates with a ruler and protractor, and typing location certificates one at a time. For a 20-claim block, that works. For a 200-claim block, it takes weeks. For 500+ claims, it becomes a scheduling and quality-control problem.
ClaimWatch's staking processor takes the claim layout as input and generates the entire package computationally. Every coordinate is calculated from the PLSS grid. Every document is populated from the layout data. Every map is rendered from the same source geometry. The output is consistent, accurate, and fast — regardless of how many claims are in the block.
The Process
- Ground verification first — the ground actually captured by third-party claims is mapped and the genuinely open ground confirmed before any layout is drawn. That is step 03, and skipping it is how companies end up filing claims over positions somebody else already holds.
- Layout designed by hand — lode and placer boundaries laid out to capture the confirmed open ground efficiently, working around excluded lands and existing senior positions. This is the judgment step and it stays human.
- Package generation — the staking processor generates location certificates, corner cards, monument waypoints, and maps for every claim in the layout, from the layout geometry.
- Field support — monument placement follows the jurisdiction's statutory posting rules, and the walking order is optimized so the crew sets posts in an efficient sequence rather than criss-crossing the block.
- Staking — the crew works the computed walking order, setting and marking each monument to the jurisdiction's statutory specification. This is where the claim is actually located on the ground.
- Filing — certificates recorded with the county recorder and filed with BLM within that jurisdiction's statutory window. Recording deadlines run from 30 to 90 days depending on the state, and several jurisdictions void a certificate that is late or incomplete.
Who Needs This
- Exploration companies staking new project areas who need hundreds of claims monumented and filed accurately and fast.
- Mining companies expanding existing claim blocks or re-staking after a land status review.
- Land departments managing staking programs across multiple states who need consistent, standardized packages.
- Landmen and consultants handling staking on behalf of clients who need a scalable production tool rather than manual drafting.
How It Fits the Workflow
Staking is step four. Each step before it hands this one a finished input:
- Mineral Exploration Report identifies the play and ranks candidate ground.
- Land Status Report audits the ground section by section — claims, encumbrances, withdrawals, and reservations.
- Claim Mapping & Ground Verification confirms what is genuinely open at boundary resolution.
- Claim Staking stakes the ground with automated packages.
- AOI Change Monitoring watches the ground once it is yours.
- GroundControl audits what the block actually captures, for regulatory and stakeholder reporting.
Get a Staking Package Estimate
Send us your target area, approximate claim count, and timeline. We'll scope the project and get you an estimate.
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