Golden Shovel Issue#2, June 2020 - Presidents Message - Mark Oldenburg

​After the new government of Gordon Campbell was elected in 2003 it implemented a task force to investigate restoring the mining industry in British Columbia.
Subsequent actions and reform implemented by that government resulted in a resurgence of mining.
These times brought a potential for prosperity in BC that still has economic benefits to this day.
Despite the successes of those recommendations, mining is again under attack in BC, with more red tape and roadblocks being created to frustrate the Notice of Work process.
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To quote the mining task force report of 2003:
“The task force acknowledges”:

1- The part time and occasional nature of much of the provincial placer mining activity.
2- the duplicate and overlapping interests of the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans and the province regarding the highly sensitive issue of protecting fish habitat.
3- the significant regulatory costs incurred by MEM relative to modest provincial revenues from the sector.
4- The need to ensure “ best practices” among placer operators.”

Furthermore, the task force went on to recommend a number of common-sense changes for the placer mining industry:

​a-The Task Force recommends a greater degree of deregulation in the placer mining industry for smaller operators (to be defined as those disturbing less than X hectares of ground and/or less than Y cubic meters of material per year, following consultation), including associated approvals from other agencies.
b-The Task Force recommends defining such smaller operations as not constituting a mine under the Mines Act; therefore, no regulation would be required by MEM for such activities.
c-The Task Force recommends MEM grant placer miners Free Miners’ Certificates conditional upon the payment of a fee and the passing by the applicant of a test demonstrating knowledge of — and a commitment to — best placer mining management practices to be developed by MEM.
d-The Task Force recommends the government eliminate placer designation areas in the province, thereby allowing placer mining to operate in a two-zone land use regime of mineral exploration and mining activities like other mining sectors in B.C.

In addition, the task for also recommended that “Provincial requirements for land use plans, permitting, bonding and reclamation should be consistent and competitive with other mining jurisdictions.” among other recommendations to reduce complexity and confusion in the mining community.

Despite the resurgence of mining in BC after 2003, the complexities of the permitting process has become discriminating in recent years. Reclamation Bonds continue to be confusing and costly. The process almost seems designed to eliminate small scale operations altogether. New guidelines for the prospector such as outlined in update 38 are overwhelmingly prohibitive.
In effect the government is holding small scale placer operations to the same level as large-scale mining projects. There appears to be an effort to regulate the placer miners out of business and out of their Constitutional right to work. It is clear that politics, not science is dictating policy in Victoria.
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Our constitutional rights are also our duty to protect from those who would corrupt by punitive regulations in their own ignorance of scientific fact. 
Read more about it here 

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BC MINING PLAN