Monetizing gold and silica mining claims

General Mineral Rights Discussion
#1

Hello,

Thank you for reading this. I am a novice when it comes to anything mineral related, but I offered to help a client monetize his gold and silica claims. He holds title to mineral claims on BLM land in California. The in-situ value of the gold is $42B, and the in-situ value of the silica is in excess of $100B.

He does not want to begin mining operations - rather he wants either a loan or an outright sale of some of these claims for other business purposes. He needs to net approximately $1M from the loan or sale, and he is pretty open to ideas.

Since I have no idea where to even start, I thought I would throw this question out to the experts.

Any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

#2

Tyler,

If you are an attorney, I suggest you contact Frank Erisman or Jim Cress, mineral attorneys at Holme Roberts & Owen in Denver for some direction.

The first need is for the third party, independent engineering report on the gold valuation you mentioned if the mine is not in production. Without that report, your best shot is for a lease or option to lease and for that all of the exploration and production records for the property must be organized and presented to a potential lessee; hopefully one that is already producing gold. If your client's claims are unpatented, make certain the claims are in good standing with the USA and perhaps someone will pick up the maintenance payments and pay an advance royalty. If the claims are patented with good shows, you may have something to "monetize".

California is a tough place to put in a mine these days regardless of the price of gold.

#3