EKCM Urges Members to Provide Feedback on BC Government Proposed Changes to Mineral and Placer Tenure Requirements in BC
The East Kootenay Chamber of Mines is informing it's members and all other holders of mineral and placer tenure to provide feedback to government (Rick Conte - Mineral Titles Online) on proposed changes to the mineral tenure system. (Mineral Titles Online) Meetings have/or are being held across the Province to discuss possible areas of changes including,
- Acquisition Fees
- Work Registration Fees
- Exploration Work Levels
- Cash Payments (Cash in Lieu of Work)
- New Claim Sizes
- PAC (Portable Assessment Credits)Â Should they keep the system the way it is?
- Time when claims expire when work or cash has not been applied. (Currently, it is 1 second after midnight)
- Work Reporting Criteria (Should it be reduced?)
- Crown Granted 2 Post Claims (Should work be mandatory on these type of claims)
- 10 Years of Work applied to the Claim (Currently, you may apply a maximum of 10 years ahead of the expiry date of a claim) Should this be changed?
- Claim Grouping (Is this system working?)
- Qualifications for Free Miner's Certificate FMC (Too easy?, Not Necessary?)
The EKCM hosted a meeting with Rick Conte (Mineral Titles Online) and interested stakeholders to discuss a wide range of issues currently impacting the tenure system in BC. Several key issues addressed by Mr. Conte on behalf of government included concerns that there are huge tracks of mineral title that have been acquired by a select few individuals, and it appears that these tenure holders have no intentions of doing work on the ground. Mr. Conte also expressed that Government has not devised a solution to deal with nuisance stakers and is looking for solutions within the mining community. Mr. Conte also suggested that British Columbia has some of lowest work requirements for mineral exploration in Canada and that he expects government would be making changes in this regard.
While our Chamber recognizes that there is a significant challenge in dealing with nuisance tenure holders, we do not wish to see changes to BC's mineral tenure system that negatively impact legitimate explorationists.
Herein lies the challenge!
Most, if not all of the recommendations to date, require fee increases as a disincentive to insincere titleholders (for eg. higher acquisition fees). Some other comments relate around the possibility of changes or elimination of the "Cash Payment" system whereby you can apply cash as a substitute to work on the ground.
We believe that it is important for all mineral and placer stakeholders to provide their suggestions to government prior to the established deadline of August 1, 2008. You can download suggestion forms from our website by clicking HERE or you can leave suggestions to Rick Conte, Director of Mineral Titles Online, by contacting him @ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
