When undertaking property acquisition, it is necessary to move quickly, stake all open ground, and undertake negotiations with private land owners and prior claimants afterward, while completing the location requirements on the staked ground. A period of relative quiet usually follows this initial burst of activity. Local residents may become somewhat frustrated at the apparent lack of follow-up just when they have begun to be interested in developments. After sufficient ground has been acquired, detailed plans for exploration are made, usually at a regional office some distance removed from the exploration project site. The individual States specify the claim location requirements, and no two laws are exactly alike.
Some States require a map showing the location of the claim.
These new State laws eliminate poorly planned trenching and bulldozing at the time of claim location, but of course do not restrict or limit the carefully planned exploration work the claimant may later do, nor minimize assessment work requirements. In many regions, indiscriminate bulldozer work in performance of claim- staking requirements is a far more widespread and serious disturbance of the surface than actual mining. Such senseless scraping of the surface should be discouraged in those States where the locator has the option of not doing physical location work upon the ground. After mineral rights have been acquired and preliminary estimates of profitability made, attention turns to the choice of exploration methods to be used and the sequence in which they are to be employed. Personnel assignments are made, outside services contracted, and necessary equipment obtained and allocated.