Valar Watch · Fact mine-002

Fact mine-002

newrecordconfirmed Carbon County has 10 open mining claims on BLM's map; none named for Valar; nearest is about 9 km from the site approved for leasing to it

2026-09-29 · mine-002 · Bureau of Land Management, Carbon County

A spatial query of both BLM claim layers against the Census boundary of Carbon County (pulled 2026-09-29) returned 10 open claims and 1 recently closed claim. Nine are lode claims AMBERIA 1-9 (serials UT106330298 to UT106330306), created in BLM's system on 9 and 13 November 2023, status 'Filed', in T14S R8E-R9E, about 23 km west of the Trust Lands parcel approved for leasing to Valar (Sec. 16, T14S R11E, see mine-010). The tenth is the placer claim BLACK RIFLE (UT106782094), created 11 February 2026, status 'Filed', mapped to the SW quarter of the NE quarter of Sec. 12, T15S R11E, about 9.4 km south-east of that parcel. An earlier 160-acre placer claim of the same name (UT106369066, created 13 May 2024) in the NE quarter of the same section is now 'Closed'. Claims created since 1 January 2024: 2 (both BLACK RIFLE). No claim name in the county points to Valar, Ward, Valarin or Numenor, and the layer does not show who staked any of them. Distances are between section centroids from BLM's survey grid and the claims' mapped centroids.

In plain termsOn the federal record, almost nothing is staked in Carbon County, and nothing near the land the state approved leasing to Valar north of Wellington. A claim staked in the last 90 days may not be on BLM's map yet: the RW 453 claim named on a posted notice (fld-002) is not on it so far (dir-005).

BLM Natl MLRS Mining Claims - Not Closed (feature layer and query results) (Bureau of Land Management (MLRS)) primary filing
BLM Natl MLRS Mining Claims - Closed (feature layer and query results) (Bureau of Land Management (MLRS)) primary filing
BOC National County Boundaries Map Service (Census county boundaries served by BLM) (Bureau of Land Management) primary government
BLM National PLSS CadNSDI, PLSS Section layer (Bureau of Land Management) primary government

verified 2026-09-29: Re-run 2026-09-29 (fresh county-polygon query, deduped): 10 open + 1 closed; AMBERIA 1-9 and BLACK RIFLE serials, dates, dispositions and legal descriptions match; distances consistent with the survey grid. Correction 2026-09-29 (wording review): lease wording now 'approved leasing'.

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