Recreational mining can be as simple as panning for gold as a weekend hobby with a sluice box as pictured, or by using something similar to an underwater vacuum cleaner to find valuable materials. In more official terms, recreational mining is the use of any equipment to dig, scrape, dredge, or otherwise move stream bed materials from below the ordinary high watermark in search of minerals, primarily gold.
“Finding out who owns the land you want to mine on is the first step for recreational mining. Otherwise you might be trespassing.”
ANDY MORK, PG, MINERALS PROGRAM MANAGER
Who owns the land?
Ownership of the land or stream must be determined prior to any mining activity. The need for access permission prior to activity varies depending on ownership
BLM, Forest Service, Land Records (may have state exploration locations, also check the county assessors office, which may have online access).
Check if federal or state land, is the area already covered by a federal mining claim or state exploration location?
There are over 40,000 mining claims in Idaho. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) maintains a database of placer and lode claims. Access to the claim location is provided on the BLM Minerals and Land Records System webpage. This is a large database, so it may take several minutes to open on your device.
What kind of recreational mining to you plan to do?
Recreational dredging consists of using a suction dredge with an intake diameter of five (5) inches or less.
Required permits for recreational mining
In most cases, two permits are required:
- A Recreational Mining Permit issued by the Idaho Department of Water Resources is needed prior to Recreational Mining. If a miner has a recreational dredging permit issued by IDWR they do not need an additional permit from the Idaho Department of Lands to mine in a navigable stream.
- Recreational mining also requires a permit from the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. This permit is called and Idaho Pollution Discharge Elimination System (IPDES) permit.
- Streams on Idaho endowment land may require an exploration location or a mineral lease from IDL because these lands are managed for the benefit of public schools and other endowment beneficiaries. Mining on endowment land is different.
Contact
Andy Mork, PG
Minerals Program Manager
(208) 334-0247
amork@idl.idaho.gov
For questions specific to a location, please contact the nearest Supervisory Area