PDAC responds to proposed Ontario Mining Act changes

“Work proves mines,” says the association in its response to the changes to the Ontario Mining Act proposed in last December’s green paper. Spending money developing a claim is the best indicator that the property is mineable.

The report also calls for guarantees to ensure a prospector receives his fair share of a claim and that means reducing the number of disputed claims.

“Once a claim goes into dispute everything stops,” says Jim McGinn, chairman of the PDA committee that prepared the response.

“Something has to be done to ensure that once a prospector has made a claim he shouldn’t lose control several years later for some frivolous reason. After he’s worked the claim with the sweat of his brow, he shouldn’t turn around and find out he’s got nothing.”

The green paper recommends that no dispute be allowed after a claim has been in good standing for one year, but the association says that’s not adequate. It suggests that no claim can be disputed after 60 days when a certificate of record is applied for, after the first work is recorded or after the first year of the claim. Also, if the legal requirements of a claim have been substantially met, the claimant should be given the opportunity to fix-up minor errors such as a missed claim marker, for example.

The association also opposes the government’s recommendation that a permit be required before a mine begins production. It says that this requirement shifts control of the mining industry away from private industry to the government and will inhibit development of mineral resources.

“We feel that mining companies are responsible,” says McGinn. “After all concerns are met — be they for environmentalists or government — why do we still have to get permission to begin production?”

The association also recommends that map staking be allowed only in inaccessible areas or where a lack of outcrop makes conventional prospecting impossible. Although the government admits that map staking is unfair to individual prospectors and small companies, it says that it is necessary under other special circumstances where staking is impractical or undesirable.

The report asks that the government define some of the terms contained in the green paper. The government calls for modified staking procedures on “environmentally sensitive areas,” but the association wants a clear definition of “environmentally sensitive.”

“That may mean one thing to a prospector but quite another to the government and something else to the Sierra Club,” says McGinn. Without a clear definition, it is impossible for a prospector to comply with the regulations, he says.

Quite naturally, the association’s 17-page report mainly deals with issues of concern to prospectors and developers. If wrangling over other aspects of the green paper results in lengthy discussion and delays, it urges the government to consider these issues separately.

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