30 U.S.C. § 28f — Fee

(a) Claim maintenance fee (1) Lode mining claims, mill sites, and tunnel sites: the holder of each unpatented lode mining claim, mill site, or tunnel site — located under U.S. mining laws before, on, or after August 10, 1993 — must pay the Secretary of the Interior a $100 fee per claim or site, on or before September 1 each year, as far as appropriations Acts provide funding for it in advance. This fee replaces the assessment work requirement in the Mining Law of 1872, and the related filing requirements in section 1744(a) and (c) of title 43. (2) Placer mining claims: the holder of each unpatented placer mining claim, located the same way, must pay this same $100 fee for each 20 acres (or part of 20 acres) of the placer claim, by September 1 each year. This also replaces the 1872 law's assessment work requirement and its related filing requirements. (b) Time of payment The claim maintenance fee under (a) must be paid for the year the location is made, at the time the location notice is recorded with the Bureau of Land Management. The location fee under section 28g of this title must be paid no later than 90 days after the location date. (c) Oil shale claims subject to claim maintenance fees under Energy Policy Act of 1992 This section does not apply to oil shale claims that must pay a fee under section 2511(e)(2) of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 instead. (d) Waiver (1) The claim maintenance fee may be waived for a claimant who certifies in writing to the Secretary that, on the date payment was due, the claimant and all related parties: (A) held no more than ten mining claims, mill sites, or tunnel sites, in any combination, on public lands; and (B) had performed the assessment work required under the Mining Law of 1872 to maintain those claims for the assessment year ending at noon on September 1 of that year. (2) A "related party" means: (A) the claimant's spouse and dependent children (as defined in section 152 of title 26); and (B) a person who controls, is controlled by, or shares common control with the claimant — where "control" includes actual control, legal control, and the power to exercise control, through directors, officers, stockholders, a voting trust, or a holding or investment company, or any other means. (3) If a small-miner waiver application is found defective, the claimant has 60 days after receiving written notice of the defect to either: (A) fix the defect, or (B) pay the $100 claim maintenance fee due for that period.