Show POINTERS FOR prospectors D L blaip this series of articles is intended for prospectors who wish to search for uranium on the colorado plat eau this vast rugged and arid and region of wild mesa tops vertical rock walled canyons and desolate wastes contain more than square miles of land the plateau comprises parts of four states colorado utah arizona and new mexico and is by far the largest uranium producing area in the united states our government invites the pros pecking for and the mining of uranium in many ways one way is by requiring no license to prospect on vacant government lands the prospector should however check on ownership on he wishes to search for ore this is accomplished by checking land an d records at the federal land office nearest s t th the e area ea in which you wish t to 0 prospect boursy v there are of course less eions on government land which is vacant and drawn land office employees will help you locate these areas should you decide to hunt for ur aniam on private property you must get permission from the owner the owner has a voice in making of leases and also in any arrangements made for mining rights one should hould 5 look into the specific require ments of the various states about this as all states do not have exactly the same regulations special permission sion must be gotten from the state authorities if one wishes to stake a claim on state owned lands such as school sections etc A permit must be obtained to pros hect or mine on indian reservations the superintendent of the reserva tion is the person to whom you should apply on all reservations except the papago reservation in arizona one must send to the bur eau of indian affairs in washington for an application for a lease to mine ore when it has been found national parks and monuments ants are closed to prospecting in most instances on the colorado plateau however the organ pipe cactus national monument is reported as being an exception should you view that region as favorable t to 0 prospect ing a letter or phone call to the superintendent of this monument would be a wise proceed ure while you should check with the federal land office in regard to lands which are open for prospect ing that is not the place to file location notices when a discovery of radio active ore is actually made and the claim has been properly staked a location notice must be filed at the office of the county recorder in whose county the claim is situated uranium has been found in areas which the geologists have declared barren however a su successful search is far more likely to take place in an area where the geologic formations are known to be favor able where other metals such as vanadium copper zinc nickel etc have been discovered or near to lo 10 where the precious ore has been found the above eions are offered as sign posts in deciding which areas are most favorable for prospecting now anybody from the east where populations are dense might get the idea from all this talk on private property state owned lands nation al parks and indian reservations reservation s that vacant government lands open to prospecting prospect mg are a bit hard to find well brother the fact is that on the colorado plateau most of the towns are tiny pinpoints of civilization clinging to the roadside in far flung domain of trackless wide open spaces there ate mighty few places where you cai go from one town to another without erps crossing sing long st of uncle sam 9 s virgin ter atory sweeping away in any diorec tion as far as the eye can see so until next week ha happy appy hunting |