BLM MLRS: Locatable Mineral Notices with Geospatial Quality Scores

Notice-level operations for locatable mineral cases authorized under the 1872 General Mining Law, managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The dataset is derived from Legal Land Descriptions and geocoded using the Public Land Survey System, with each case assigned a data quality score based on mapping accuracy. It was last updated on April 14, 2026, by the Department of the Interior.

Use Cases

• Assess spatial data quality for mineral claims based on the seven defined mapping score groups.
• Map and analyze the distribution of authorized or pending locatable mineral notices.
• Study the application of the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) for geocoding legal land descriptions.
• Identify cases where geometry is missing or approximated due to limitations in the MLRS geocoding algorithm.

Strengths

• Includes a detailed data quality scoring system with seven distinct groups for assessing geospatial accuracy.
• Cases are geocoded using the most accurate survey data available through the BLM Cadastral Survey workforce.
• Covers locatable minerals as defined by the 1872 General Mining Law, providing a legal framework for the data.

Limitations

• Geospatial representations are missing for some cases that cannot be geocoded using the MLRS algorithm.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Bureau of Land Management's Mineral and Land Record System (MLRS).

Collection Method

Derived from Legal Land Descriptions (LLD) and geocoded using the Public Land Survey System (PLSS).

Time Range

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Freshness

Last updated 2026-04-14 16:47:31.821951; freshness should be verified.

Geography

United States (lands under BLM management).