Issuance of Final Certificate

The issuance of final certificate is not an indication that a proceedings for a patent are concluded with. Before being able to issue a patent, it is necessary to verify the validity of a mining claim. However, assessment work will not be necessary after the issuing of a final certificate. The case record will be turned over to a government mineral examiner so that he is able to verify that a valuable mineral deposit has been found, and that all of the required and asked for improvements and developments have been carried out, as well as all of the legal requirements met. In cases in which the land that is covered by the patent application is inside of a National Forest, the claim will need to be looked into by a mineral examiner of the United Sates Forest Service. Anywhere else, the claim will be looked into by a Bureau of Land Management mineral examiner. These people are professionals and expert geologists, geological engineers, as well as mining engineers. Usually the government mineral experts will tell the mining claimant of the date that has been chosen for the examination of the mining claim and will ask him to go along with them in their examination. When viable, the examination will be programmed so that it better suits the applicant. The points of discovery need to be available so they can be inspected. It is not expected for the examiners to make a discovery for the mining claimant, neither will they restore the points of discovery, and neither will they do any examinations in dangerous areas. The mining examiner is expected to be totally impartial in this matter though. The examination he carries out usually will be objective and will go along with the profession he has and the practices that are done in the industry. This mining examiner is not the person who has been authorized to provide opinions during the inspection moment and he will not talk about the qualities of the claim. If everything goes well, and it has been proven that a discovery was made and the other requirements have been fulfilled and carried out, the claim will then be allowed to be patented. Nonetheless, if it is not verified that a discovery has been made, the government can start a contest the proceeds against the claim. A contest consists of an investigation of the validity of the mining claim. The mining claimant is warned of the inquiry by the service of a complaint. If the claimant does not agree to the allegations that are in the complaint and if this is done inside the provided time, a trial will be held in agreement with the Administrative Procedure Act. During the hearing the claimant will be given the opportunity to question the witness of the government and to provide evidence, as well as expert testimony, to authenticate his statement of the validity of the claim. The hearing is supervised by a Hearing Examiner that will make a decision once full consideration of the law and all evidence has been put forward by the parties. Unfavorable decisions are subject to appeal. Even though in some circumstances the patent will communicate just a partial title that consist of some restrictions, usually a mining claim or mill site patent will express the whole of the government’s title to the land that is covered by the claim. This type of delivery in fee simple moves the property to private ownership. The mining claimant might then use the land like any other private property. The land will, as is expected, be subject to the usually ordinances and taxes as is done with all lands.