The claim just dropped.
Will you be first?
Every year tens of thousands of federal mining claims lapse — reopening ground someone already prospected. LodeFinder catches every drop the morning it happens, scores it, and tells you if you can stake it. Miss the alert and someone else drives out first.
No account needed to try the inspector · Cancel anytime · Public BLM data
Tracking 79,000+ scored drops across 14 states — refreshed this morning.
Every day you're not watching, ground opens and closes without you.
Claims lapse quietly. There's no announcement — the record just flips to closed. The prospectors who move on it are the ones who knew the morning it happened. Everyone else finds out when it's already restaked.
Illustrative of the product feed · real drops refresh every morning
Three steps between you and open ground.
Draw the ground you care about. We watch it. You get the email the morning something opens.
Draw your watchlist
Pick a state or drag a box on the map around the district you know. It takes ten seconds.
We watch BLM daily
Every morning we re-pull the national closed-claims record, score each new drop, and check if it's actually stakeable.
You get the email
A ranked digest of what dropped inside your ground — score, acreage, and the PLSS legal you need to file. Before anyone else moves.
Check any point. Live BLM verdict.
Click anywhere on the map — try Nevada or eastern California — for a live land-status read: surface agency, in-force withdrawals, the PLSS legal description, and whether an active claim already covers it. This is the same inspector inside the product, free forever.
BLM forgets. LodeFinder doesn't.
BLM's public closed-claims layer is a rolling window — roughly a year, then a lapsed claim rolls off it and is gone from the live record. We keep what it drops: 3,805,867 closed claims on file, searchable free by serial, name, type, acreage, or state. Every claim ever staked in a district — still on the record here.
BLM disposition history
Someone proved this ground, then let the fee lapse. For about $274, it's open to stake again — if you catch it first.
Every other map answers "whose ground is this?" LodeFinder answers what just opened — and can you stake it.
The archives are stale. The maps are defensive. Nobody else scores the drops, verifies the ground, and puts it in your inbox daily. That gap is the whole product.
Less than one claim's filing fee. Per year.
Staking a single lode claim costs about $274. A year of watching every drop in America costs less. The math isn't close.
- ✓Live BLM stakeability verdict
- ✓Withdrawals, wilderness, agency
- ✓PLSS legal description
- ✓Search the 3.8M-claim historical archive
- ✓Daily scored national drop feed
- ✓Unlimited state + map watchlists
- ✓Morning email alerts on new drops
- ✓Everything in Free
Not investment, legal, or tax advice. Data is sourced from public BLM records and can be incomplete or stale — BLM is the authoritative source and every claim must be verified there before you act. Fees are non-refundable for data-driven outcomes. See Terms and Privacy.
Dropped claims, answered.
The questions prospectors ask before they subscribe — what a drop is, what it costs to stake, and what's free.
What is a dropped mining claim?
A dropped — or lapsed — mining claim is an unpatented federal mining claim whose holder stopped maintaining it, most often by missing BLM's annual maintenance fee. When that happens the claim is forfeited, BLM marks it closed, and the ground it covered reopens to location by someone else under the General Mining Law of 1872. BLM is the authoritative source for a claim's status — verify any claim there before you act.
How do I find mining claims that just dropped?
Dropped claims appear in BLM's closed-claims records, but BLM keeps that public layer for only about a year and it carries no scoring. LodeFinder re-pulls BLM's national closed-claims records every morning, isolates the newly-closed claims, scores each one 0–100, and can email you when ground drops inside an area you're watching. You can also check any point for free with the BLM land-status inspector and search the historical archive free, no account needed.
What happens to mining claims on September 1?
September 1 is BLM's annual maintenance-fee deadline. Claimants who don't pay the fee — or file a qualifying small-miner waiver — by then forfeit their claims, so the largest wave of drops each year clusters around that date. Claims lapse year-round too; September 1 is just the biggest window. Exact status is recorded by BLM — verify before you act.
How much does it cost to stake a mining claim?
Filing a new claim with BLM runs about $274 in federal fees — a location fee, an initial maintenance fee, and a processing fee — and you also record the claim with the county, which charges its own recording fee. Fee amounts change, so verify the current figures with BLM and your county recorder before you file. A mining claim conveys mineral rights only.
Is the scored drop feed free?
No. The scored national drop feed, saved watchlists, and morning email alerts are the paid plan — $29/month or $290/year, cancel anytime. What's free, with no account: the BLM point inspector, searching the 3,805,867-record historical archive, and a weekly Drop Report email. Alerts are delivered by email only, never SMS.
Can I search old and closed mining claims for free?
Yes. LodeFinder keeps a searchable archive of 3,805,867 closed BLM claims — by serial, claim name, type, acreage, or state — free and with no account. About 110,000 of those records carry a dated closure where BLM recorded one; the rest show the claim on file without a drop date. We never invent a date BLM didn't publish. BLM is the authoritative source; verify before you act.
The best ground goes to whoever saw it first.
Set a watchlist tonight. Wake up to the drops. The prospectors who win aren't the ones who work hardest — they're the ones who knew first. Every morning, that could be you.
Start watching — $29/moNot ready to subscribe? Get the Drop Report.
Every Monday, the week's top-scored drops nationwide — in your inbox, no account needed. The free way to keep an eye on the ground before you ever pay.
Free. Unsubscribe anytime. Weekly — email only, never SMS.