You can obtain a patent to your mining claim, if it is located according to the mining law.

          "Location"1 is used in a technical sense. There are three acts of location necessary to perfect a claim:

          (1) You must discover a valuable mineral deposit ² of a locatable kind ³ on land open to mineral entry.
          (2) You must post your notice of location on the claim and mark your boundaries. ⁴
          (3) You must record the location with local and federal agencies. ⁵

          The Supreme Court of the United States has said that a perfected mining claim is property in the highest sense of the term. ⁶

          Even as to the National Forest public domain, Forestry recognizes that mining claimants "have a statutory right, not a mere privilege, under the 1872 mining law and the Forestry Act of 1897" to explore, develop and produce minerals from national forest land. ⁷

          Congress, under the “Supremacy Clause” ⁸ and the "Property Clause", ⁹ enacted the mining law of 1872. ¹⁰ Your rights to a perfected located claim are constitutionally protected. ^{11, 12}
In the mining law, the United States made an offer to citizens to grant them title to lands bearing valuable mineral deposits when they discover and locate such deposits.
When this offer is accepted, it becomes a contract.¹³ By perfecting your claim and performance of $500 in improvements, ¹⁴ you have performed the conditions of the contract on your part to be performed. You are entitled to receive a deed, called a patent, from the United States. You must pay $5 per acre for a lode claim, and any accompanying millsite, $2.50 per acre for a placer claim and any accompanying millsite. ^{15, 16}

          In theory, the patent does not enlarge or diminish your rights dating from the time of your location, ¹⁷ but it does give you the protection and certainty that come with a fee simple title.
When location of your unpatented claim is perfected, you own the possessory title and the right to mine, so long as you perform your annual assessment work. ¹⁸ You own the equitable title ¹⁹ to the land on which your claim is located. The United States holds the naked legal title in trust for you. ²⁰ A patent protects you from challenge to your location, either by a rival locator or by an agency of the Government.