BLM LR2000 mining claim authorizations (density) for the Sagebrush Mineral-Resource Assessment (SaMiRA) aggregated by Public Land Survey System (PLSS) section boundaries

The polygon (vector) shapefile represents Public Land Survey System (PLSS) sections, or 1-square mile areas of land, with information about Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land and mineral use authorizations for mining claims. For each section, the number of claims (by type) was determined and a density (by claim type) was calculated. The land areas specified by BLM authorizations vary in size and orientation, and may cross PLSS section boundaries. For spatial consistency, the information was aggregated to the square mile PLSS section boundary. The original source data from BLM Cases Recordation database (LR2000) were specific to the day they were generated (March 6, 2016) and subsequent data pulls will likely be different.