Terms of Use

1. Screening Purpose Only

Sierra Nevada Placer Claims ("Sierra Claims", "the app") is a screening map for researching potential Sierra Nevada placer-claim locations. It combines public third-party datasets into conservative candidate plots and context layers intended as field-planning guidance for deeper verification. It does not make legal determinations of any kind.

2. Product Warning

Sierra Claims is a screening map only. It is not legal, safety, access, navigation, surveying, claim-filing, or emergency advice. Candidate ratings are estimates from public third-party datasets that may be incomplete, stale, capped, inaccurate, or unavailable. A green or yellow plot does not mean land is legally claimable, open to mineral entry, safely accessible, free of private rights, free of claim conflicts, or suitable for filing. Before travel, prospecting, staking, filing, or entering land, you are responsible for verifying current BLM/MLRS records, county records, land and mineral status, withdrawals, closures, permits, road/trail conditions, legal descriptions, weather, and field hazards with official sources and qualified professionals. Do not rely on this app where an error could cause injury, death, trespass, citation, loss of claim rights, or other legal consequences. Use is at your own risk; warranties and liability are disclaimed to the fullest extent permitted by law.

3. No Professional Advice

Nothing in the app is legal, safety, access, navigation, surveying, claim-filing, mineral-rights, or emergency advice. Candidate ratings, spot checks, access labels, and generated PLSS-based plot geometry are screening output from mapped sources, not professional opinions or legal descriptions.

4. Your Verification Responsibility

Before traveling to, entering, prospecting, staking, or filing on any location, you are solely responsible for verifying current conditions and records with official sources and qualified professionals, including BLM/MLRS records, county records, land and mineral status, withdrawals, closures, permits, private rights, road and trail conditions, legal descriptions, weather, and field hazards.

5. Third-Party Data Limitations

The app relies on external services and datasets, including BLM, USDA Forest Service, USGS (including MRDS), and OpenStreetMap. These sources may be incomplete, stale, capped, inaccurate, or unavailable, and the app's cached copies may lag the sources. County-level records are not included. Request caps and timeouts can truncate results. Ratings and context can change without notice when sources change.

6. Source Licensing and Attribution

Map base data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL). Federal datasets from BLM, USDA Forest Service, and USGS are public data provided without warranty by their agencies; their inclusion does not imply agency endorsement of this app.

7. No Warranty

The app and all data are provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including warranties of accuracy, completeness, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

8. Limitation of Liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the developer and any provider of the app are not liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, special, or exemplary damages arising from use of, or inability to use, the app or its data, including injury, death, trespass, citation, loss of claim rights, lost profits, or lost data, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain warranty exclusions or liability limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you.

9. Accounts, Deletion, and Data

Accounts are optional. The core screening map works without signing in. If you create an account, you are responsible for keeping your credentials secure and for activity under your account. You may export your account data or delete your account at any time from the account panel in the app.

Account deletion is a soft delete with a recovery window: your account is deactivated and scheduled for permanent deletion after a grace period of 30 days. You may recover it during that window by signing back in; after it lapses, the account and its associated data are permanently removed. If you have an active subscription, deletion stops future renewals while preserving access you have already paid for. Recovery does not restart renewal; continuing the subscription afterward requires a separate, explicit billing action. Certain non-personal billing records may be retained as required for accounting, tax, audit, or fraud-prevention purposes.

10. Payments and Subscriptions

Paid subscription tiers are not yet available. When they launch, payments will be processed by a third-party payment provider on their hosted pages; the app does not store your card details. This section will be updated with full billing, cancellation, and refund terms before any paid tier is enabled. You will be able to manage or cancel a subscription from the account panel, and deleting your account stops future renewals as described above.

11. Advertising

Anonymous and free-tier use of the app may display advertising served by Google AdSense. Supporter subscribers see no ads. Advertisements are third-party content: they are not endorsements, and advertised products or services are not vetted by this app. Ad-related cookies and personalization are described in the Privacy Policy. Fraudulently interacting with ads (such as automated or incentivized clicking) is prohibited; ordinary browser privacy tools are permitted.

12. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old to use the app. It is intended for adults planning lawful prospecting research: locating a mining claim is a legal act with contractual and financial consequences, field prospecting carries real physical risk, and the free tier is supported by advertising that is not directed to children. The app is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If we learn that we have, we will delete it. See the Privacy Policy for how to reach us about that.

By using the app you confirm that you are 18 or older and that your use complies with the laws that apply to you, including the rules of the land manager and jurisdiction where you intend to prospect.

13. Governing Law and Disputes

These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of California, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods does not apply.

If you have a problem, contact us first through the in-app Feedback form. Most issues are resolved that way, and we ask that you give us 30 days to respond before starting a formal proceeding.

Any dispute that is not resolved informally must be brought in the state or federal courts located in California, and you and we consent to the personal jurisdiction of those courts. This does not stop either of us from bringing an individual claim in a small-claims court that has jurisdiction, and it does not waive any right you have under the consumer-protection laws of your home jurisdiction that cannot be waived by agreement.

If any part of these Terms is held unenforceable, the rest stays in effect and the unenforceable part is limited to the minimum extent necessary.

14. Changes to These Terms

These Terms may change as the app changes. Every version carries a version number and an effective date at the top of this page; this is version 1.0, effective 2026-08-04.

A material change raises the version number and triggers a fresh in-app acceptance prompt, so continuing to use the map after such a change means you have seen and accepted the current version rather than an older one. Non-material corrections (typographical fixes, clarified wording, updated links) update the effective date without a new prompt. If you do not agree to a new version, stop using the app; you may delete your account at any time from the account panel.

15. Contact

Questions or corrections can be sent through the in-app Feedback form on the map page.