The Staking Report: October 2026

The Leading Edge

ClaimWatch's live tracker has logged 163 newly recorded claims since BLM's 10/26/2026 records, through 10/30/2026, that appear in no published BLM dataset yet. Of the 6,969 new claims BLM recorded in the 40 days through 10/30/2026, the largest shares were for ground staked in September 2026 (29.5%) and May 2026 (15.9%). The public record is still catching up on both.

BLM's records as of 10/26/2026 already carry claims located after June. These counts are floors and will rise in later issues:

• July 2026: 1,925 claims recorded so far
• August 2026: 569 claims recorded so far
• September 2026: 2,721 claims recorded so far
• October 2026: 162 claims recorded so far

What Caught Up

A locator has 90 days from the date of location to record a new claim with BLM (43 CFR 3833.11), and BLM processes filings after they arrive, so claims keep landing for months after the ground was staked. Every issue re-counts the months before it. Since the last issue:

• March 2026: 5,551 to 5,692 (+141)
• April 2026: 5,111 to 5,938 (+827)
• May 2026: 6,758 to 8,301 (+1,543)
• June 2026: 2,640 to 3,342 (+702)
• July 2026: 1,300 to 1,925 (+625)
• August 2026: 329 to 569 (+240)
• September 2026: 361 to 2,721 (+2,360)

May 2026, last issue's featured month, gained 1,543 claims after it was called settled. That is why the Staking Report waits four months before featuring a month, and keeps re-counting it afterward.

Fee Deadline Watch

Every unpatented federal mining claim owes an annual maintenance fee on or before September 1 (43 CFR 3834.11), unless the claimant qualifies for and files a small-miner waiver by the same date (43 CFR 3835). A claim that does neither is forfeited by operation of law (43 CFR 3830.91), which BLM records in a later administrative batch. This year's deadline was 9/1/2026. Going into it, 582,581 active claims owed the fee. BLM's records as of 10/26/2026 show 556,978 of them (95.6%) recorded as paid or waived, and 25,603 with no payment on file.

ClaimWatch's live tracker has been checking each of those 25,603 claims against BLM's own system since. Through 10/30/2026 it has seen BLM record payment on 93 of them, leaving 25,510 with no payment of record. That movement does not show in BLM's published records yet; it is visible only claim by claim.

For scale, last year's forfeitures were closed in one administrative batch on 2/9/2026 and 2/10/2026: 37,039 claims that remain closed today. BLM has not yet run the batch for this year's deadline; when it does, this section will report the count.

The Settled Month: June 2026

Infield Minerals Nevada Inc. staked 267 new mining claims in western Utah in June 2026, more than any other claimant in the country and 8.0% of all claims located nationwide that month. They account for 90.8% of the month's new claims in Millard County, and they fall in two separate blocks, each on a project the company has announced.

Across all states, 3,342 new claims carry a June 2026 location date in BLM's records as of 10/26/2026, against 8,301 for May 2026. On today's count June is the lowest of the nine settled months, below the previous low of 3,809 in February 2026, but that count is still climbing: June gained 702 claims since the last issue. May 2026 remains the high point of the settled run.

Who Staked the Most Ground

Most of the month's leaders worked a single area. Diamondback Copper LLC took 224 claims, all in Cochise County, Arizona. Quartz Mountain Gold Ltd. recorded 220, nearly all in Lake County, Oregon (BLM's record gives no county for a few). Silver Opportunity Partners LLC booked 232, almost all in Shoshone County, Idaho, with a small group straddling the state line into Mineral County, Montana. Tethered Gold LLC's 124 claims sat in Esmeralda and Pershing counties, Nevada, and Osbourne Minerals Inc. put 111 in San Bernardino County, California.

Almadex America Inc., second with 255 claims, worked two states. More than half went to Graham County, Arizona, where it was the only staker of the month, with more in Yavapai County, Arizona, and a smaller group in Mineral County, Nevada.

Lodestar USA LLC's 114 claims were mostly in Gunnison County, Colorado, with a smaller block in Mohave County, Arizona. FPX Exploration (US) Inc. staked 101, almost all in Siskiyou County, California, and Cumoquest Resources Arizona LLC rounded out the top ten with 100 in Yavapai County, Arizona.

Top stakers, June 2026

Counties are listed in order of the company's claims there.

Where the Claims Went

Millard County, Utah, led all counties with 292 new claims from 2 stakers, nearly all of them Infield's. Shoshone, Idaho, followed with 231 from 3 stakers, and Cochise, Arizona, with 228 from 2. Lake, Oregon, recorded 218 from 2 stakers; San Bernardino, California, 199 from 5; and Graham, Arizona, 143, all of them Almadex's.

Yavapai County, Arizona, was the most contested ground of the month: 179 claims split among 12 stakers. Esmeralda, Nevada, logged 139 from 5 and was the only Nevada county in the top eight.

Claims Closed

BLM closed 154 claims nationwide in June 2026, for a net gain of 3,188. More than half of the closures were in Juab County, Utah, where Hinkinite Resources LLC gave up 87 claims. BLM's records now show 593,716 active claims nationwide.

The Year in Staking

Methodology: figures reflect unpatented mining claims located in June 2026 per BLM MLRS public records as of 10/26/2026; live-tracker figures run through 10/30/2026. Claim counts reflect unpatented mining-claim filings recorded by BLM for which claimant attribution is available; claims are listed under the claimant name in BLM's records, or under a parent company where ClaimWatch has the relationship on record. A claim that spans two counties is counted in each. Nearby deposits are from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System, measured from the nearest claim. Data: ClaimWatch.

About this data

BLM records new mining claims weeks to months after they are staked and publishes its files in irregular batches, so a raw snapshot of "this month's" filings is mostly older activity catching up. The Staking Report keys every figure to the claim's actual location date (when the ground was staked, not when BLM logged it) and features June 2026, the most recent month whose recordation is substantially complete. More recent months are still being recorded and will revise upward in later issues.

Closure counts exclude BLM's annual assessment-year void, 37,039 claims closed in a single administrative batch on 2/9/2026 and 2/10/2026 for non-payment of maintenance fees, which is reported separately from month-to-month closures.

The Staking Report is built from BLM MLRS public records by ClaimWatch, ChoraQuest's mining claims intelligence platform: 593,716 active unpatented claims tracked across 12 BLM states, 4,497,030 claim records, updated on BLM refresh cycles (data as of 10/28/2026). ClaimWatch produces leadfile examinations, due-diligence area reports, and claim monitoring for the mining industry. Learn more at claimwatch.io.