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Staking a mineral claim
Meet the Mining Recorder's OfficeNews/North is taking readers through a stage by stage series on navigating the proper channels to establish a mining project in the Northwest Territories. By breaking the process down in steps, we aim to gain insight into what mineral exploration and development companies often describe as the "red tape" that deters some from investing in the NWT, and find out whether it really is easier to pursue mining projects in the single land claim territory of Nunavut.
Thandie Vela
Often, like in the case of recently staked land near Avalon Rare Metals Inc.'s Nechalacho rare earth elements deposit at Thor Lake in the NWT, explorers are drawn by the area's proximity to known mineral deposits. "The area is highly prospective for rare earth elements," Solace Resources Corp. president Kyle Stevenson told News/North, explaining why the British Columbia-based mineral exploration company was drawn to the land. Regardless of what has piqued your interest in a particular area for exploration in the NWT or Nunavut, your first stop should be Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada's Mining Recorder's Office. The office is where applications are made for the rights to the minerals in Crown-owned land, in the form of a mineral claim which is obtained through staking. Anyone with a prospector's licence can record a mineral claim, and a licence can be bought at the Mining Recorder's office by any individual 18 years or older for $5, or $50 for a company. The office provides every prospector with an information package which includes a How to Obtain Mining Rights in the NWT and Nunavut booklet, a copy of The Northwest Territories and Nunavut Mining Regulations, and a guide to completing an application-to-record form. The cost to have a mineral claim recorded is 10 cents per acre, but the real cost comes in the actual staking of the desired land. "That's where the cost is incurred -- actually going out in the field to stake it," mining recorder Rose Greening said, noting because of the lack of infrastructure across the majority of the territories, prospectors must hire helicopters for staking. Staking can take place on any Crown land except national parks, burial grounds, mineral claims in good standing, areas being used by the government -- including national defence, energy, or transport department areas -- and private lands, including settled land claims. Each claim must be 10.5 square km or smaller, must have 90-degree-angle corners, and be as close to rectangular as possible. Legal-sized posts, or sound wood stakes which are usually cut-off trees, must be firmly planted in the ground at each corner of the claim. The posts must be put up and numbered in a clockwise direction, starting with the northeast corner, and properly labelled with an identification or claim tag, which can be purchased from the mining recorders office for $2 per set. The claim tag is secured to each corner post with nails or staples. The staker is also required to walk the perimeter of their claim clockwise, placing posts on the boundary lines no more than 1,500 feet apart. A sketch of the claim staked on a 1:50,000 scale map -- which includes recognizable landmarks, where the claim is in relation to other claims, and the position of the posts -- is to be submitted to the mining recorder, in addition to the recording fee and a complete application-to-record form, within 60 days of staking. "The process is simple -- it's just complex in that they have to make sure that everything that is required to stake is done in accordance with the regulations," Greening said, adding anyone who has reason to protest the way a claim is staked can file a priority claim up to 60 days after a claim is submitted, to dispute the matter. Any land where the Crown owns mineral, or subsurface rights, can be staked without notification of the community, except for areas that are surface-owned through land claims. In these cases, prospectors can still acquire mineral claims, but must have permission to stake a claim before any posts are placed. Next step: Getting permission to enter land claim areas for mineral claims.
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