N.W.T. and Nunavut Chamber of Mines wants companies to stake online – by Guy Quenneville (CBC News North – March 15, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

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.)

For the rest of this article, click here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mineral-staking-online-nwt-1.3491236