N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines wants companies to stake online

The N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines wants companies in the Northwest Territories to be able to stake mineral claims online, without having to go on the land.

The call comes as the territorial government prepares to set up its own rules — distinct from those inherited from the federal government after devolution — for how mineral claims are registered, explored and developed in the N.W.T.

The current regulations mean companies have to fly in and out of remote areas and mark the perimetre of their claims with a series of posts, a process deemed "onerous" by Tom Hoefer, the chamber of mines' executive director.

"We waste a lot of money simply acquiring mineral tenure with [the] traditional system of staking claims," said Hoefer.

Provinces like Ontario, B.C. and Saskatchewan currently allow online staking, also known as map staking, albeit with restrictions and not without some hiccups. (In Ontario, it's only allowed in surveyed areas in the southern part of the province. In B.C., complaints have surfaced about online speculators buying up land with no intention of actually exploring for minerals.)

The federal government is even planning to roll out map staking in Nunavut.

In the N.W.T., it would allow companies to reserve the money they normally used to stake claims, for actual work exploring the ground, said Hoefer.

'Circumstances beyond their control' 

The chamber of mines also wants the territorial government to reinstate a section in the current mining regulations that the federal government removed in 2014.

The section excused companies for not carrying out sampling, drilling or other exploration work on their claims because of "circumstances beyond [their] control." (If companies don't do that work, they can lose their claim.)

Hoefer says the lack of a land claim in the Akaitcho region — the N.W.T.'s most explored region — can sometimes prevent a company from carrying out work.

"It's not fair for them to be forced to do that work when, in reality, they can't," said Hoefer.

Not all of the mining industry's previous suggestions have been incorporated into the regulations: in 2014 the industry successfully lobbied to have environmental baseline studies accepted as a form of work to keep a claim in good standing — but consultation with aboriginal groups was not accepted.

'Not going to be a very quick process'

Pamela Strand, director of the N.W.T.'s mineral resources division, says the process of setting up a Mineral Resource Act and ensuing regulations "is not going to be a very quick process," adding that "significant" consultation with aboriginal governments, the mining industry and other groups needs to happen first.

"We need to hear from many voices on whether map staking is the right way to go," she said. 

A legislative proposal could be readied by the end of the 18th legislative assembly in 2019, Strand added.