This time of year is when I hit the books and study history and geology and if there is any open ground in the place of interest I have in mind but this year seems to be different in that I am seeing vast acreage gobbled up by large mining company's and I don't mean pretend miners selling claims on ebay. These are large miners mostly from Canada and they are claiming section after section amounting to thousands of acres in great proven areas of the past and present and are even gobbling up smaller claims that have belonged to individuals for generations. Do they know something we don't ? Tom