If the application is complete and the discovery proofs are adequate, the mineral examiner will clearlist the claim for patent and submit his mineral report.

          If the application for patent cannot be verified on the issue of mineral discovery, the mineral examiner reports this to the mineral specialist.

          Usually, opportunity is given to correct the error or omission and to supply additional proofs.

          The BLM takes the position that it is not required to make an environmental analysis or prepare an environmental impact statement before issuing patent to a mining claim. The patenting of a mining claim is not a "major federal action" within the scope of Sec. 102 of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969. ²⁸ The only federal action is issuance of a patent document, which does not enlarge or diminish the claimant's rights dating from the time of location of a valid mining claim to extract the locatable mineral resource. ²⁹

          However, the mining claimant's environmental compliance and reclamation costs under state lava must be considered, along with other cost factors, in applying the "Prudent man doctrine".
          
Before you have your claim surveyed by the U.S. minerals surveyor, you may wish to amend your location notice. You should check to be sure that you have not located more ground than is permissible; that the end lines of your lode claim are parallel; that the side lines are not more than 300 feet from the middle of the vein or lode; that the designated point of discovery is not more than 300 feet from either side line.

          Lode lines must not be more than 1500 feet in length. Mining claims are measured on the horizontal. If you measure 1500 feet up or down hill without calculating the sines, your claim will be less than 1500 feet in length. If the lode or vein crosses the claim, then the side lines become the end lines, and your claim will be only 600 feet in length.

          It is important to-be sure that there are no gaps in a group of claims left open for someone else to locate. You should make sure that you have chosen correctly whether to locate as a lode or as a placer. A lode discovery will not sustain a placer location, and a placer discovery will not sustain a lode location. Cole v. Ralph, 252 US 286.

          Check the evidence of your title. Order an abstract of title or title certificate from a title company. Just before you are ready to file your patent application, order from the clerk of the court having jurisdiction of mining cases in the county or judicial district where the property lies, a certificate that no pending litigation involves your right to possession and that during the time period fixed by the state's statute of limitations, there has been no litigation affecting title which was not finally decided in your favor.
          
Review your proof of discovery and improvements. Not less than $500 worth of labor must have been expended, or improvements made on each claim embraced in the application. If the property to be patented consists of several contiguous locations it is permissible if an amount equal to $500 for each location has been expended in and for the improvement of the entire group. Cornering locations are deemed not to be contiguous. "Field Handbook for Mineral Examiners". p. 25.

          Geologic, geochemical or geophysical surveys, which are acceptable as assessment work, do not qualify as improvements for patenting purposes. Expenditures and mining improvements must relate directly to the practical development and facilitate extraction of mineral from the claim. Work done by a previous locator who has abandoned the claim is not acceptable, but work by a grantor may be counted.