Reporting Procedures for Mineral Patent Application Processing, Mining Claim Recordation, and Surface Management; DD: 09/30/2009

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240
http://www.blm.gov

June 30, 2009
In Reply Refer To:
3833/3860 (320) P

EMS TRANSMISSION 07/14/2009
Instruction Memorandum No. 2009-168
Expires: 09/30/2010

To: All State Directors

From: Assistant Director, Minerals and Realty Management

Subject: Reporting Procedures for Mineral Patent Application Processing, Mining Claim
Recordation, and Surface Management DD: 09/30/2009

Program Area: Mining Law and Surface Management Administration.

Purpose: The purpose of this Instruction Memorandum (IM) is to establish new procedures for tracking and compiling statistical quarterly mining claim reports and to reiterate the necessity of being in compliance with data standard guidelines.

Policy/Action: Prior to the issuance of this IM, policy was established for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) state offices under IM 2001-215 dated September 7, 2001, which required each individual state to report units and progress for certain types of actions on a quarterly basis. Effective immediately, states are no longer required to furnish this information as it will now be a Washington Office (WO) function to track this data and compile the quarterly reports. This IM, however, does not alter or remove the responsibility of each state to track their workload measurement by updating the Performance and Workload Measurement System.

In order for the WO to provide the most current statistics and compile accurate quarterly reports, each office is required to enter their mining claim data timely (within 10 days from the date of action) into Legacy Rehost (LR) 2000 or the Alaska Land Information System (ALIS), including making certain new mining claims are also entered within the 10-day time period, regardless whether a land status check has been completed. For surface management information, such as Notices, Plans of Operations and inspections, each office is required to enter their data timely (within five days from the date of action) into LR2000 and ALIS. In addition, when entering data, it is imperative that all appropriate data standards be followed. If the data is not entered timely and the standards are not followed, reports will not be accurate. This could impact the budget for your office.

The WO understands the difficulty of complying with the 10-day time limit for entering maintenance fee and small miner’s waiver data into LR2000 and ALIS during the annual filing period of August and September. Accordingly, during the months of August and September each year, maintenance fee and small miner’s waiver data shall be entered into LR2000 and ALIS within 30 days from the date of receipt. This will be the only exception. Current data standards can be found at http://web.blm.gov/data_mgt/standards/index.htm.

Timeframe: This IM is effective immediately. The LR2000 and ALIS data bases are to be brought current by September 30, 2009, to include all actions currently affecting pending and authorized surface management and mineral patent application cases, as well as pending and active mining claim recordation (MCR) cases. A list of pending MCR cases for each state can be found by using the “MC New Pend CBS” report available in the LR2000 Internal Reports Reporting Application.

Budget Impacts: None.

Background: The annual budget and Secretarial review process requires the BLM to maintain current data on certain actions for MCR and maintenance fees, mineral patent applications, and surface management. The WO receives frequent requests for this data from Congress, the Congressional Budget Office, the Office of Management and Budget, and other interested parties. Since much of this data is not included in the management information system, it is necessary to extract the data from the BLM’s official automated data bases, LR2000 and the ALIS.

Manual/Handbook Sections Affected: None.

Coordination: Development of this IM was coordinated through the Division of Solid Minerals (WO-320) staff and comments received from various field offices.

Contact: If you have any questions concerning this content of this IM, please contact me at 202-208-4201, or your staff may contact Mitchell Leverette, Chief, Division of Solid Minerals (WO-320), at 202-452-5088, email address Mitchell_Leverette@blm.gov, or Sonia Santillan, Mineral Leasing Specialist (WO-320), at 202-452-0398, email address Sonia_Santillan@blm.gov.

Signed by: Authenticated by:
Timothy R. Spisak Robert M. Williams
Acting, Assistant Director Division of IRM Governance,WO-560
Minerals and Realty Management