'Relief' extended to Peel claimholders

The Yukon government has extended its “relief order” for Peel quartz mineral claims for another year.

The order was set to expire this Monday. It’s now going to be in place until Feb. 4, 2014.

A claim post in the Peel.

Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Brad Cathers announced the extension at the Mineral Exploration Roundup conference being held in Vancouver this week, said a department spokesperson.

The order “provides relief" from annual assessment requirements on all claims in good standing. That means the more than 8,400 Peel claims will automatically get their expiry dates bumped ahead by another year for free.

Normally Yukon claimholders have to either do $100 worth of work or pay $100 in lieu of work to extend a 51-acre claim’s expiry date for another 12  months.

But Section 57 of the Yukon Quartz Mining Act allows the minister “to grant relief where circumstances over which a claimholder has no control may affect the ability of the claimholder to undertake annual representation work or make payment in lieu.”

Uncertainty over the future of the Peel and its controversial land use planning process was considered such a circumstance.

The “relief order” was first issued in late March, 2010, shortly after the government imposed a ban on new claim staking in the region. The "relief" only applied to 2,400 claims that were due to expire before Feb. 4, 2011.

It was renewed for a full year in 2011 and expanded to include all 8,400 plus existing claims, whether they were due to expire or not.

It was extended for another year in 2012  and again 2013.

Most of the Peel claims were staked after the land use planning process was well underway. There were only about 1,600 claims when the Peel planning commission started work in 2004.

Requests to put a moratorium on new claims until the plan was completed were initially ignored by the Yukon government.

A staking rush followed and by late 2008 there were more than 11,000 claims in good standing.

Then the markets crashed, the exploration companies moved on and they started letting their claims lapse when they expired.

Only about 8,400 remained by the time the government stemmed the lapsing tide with its “relief order” in 2010.

The Yukon may have lost several million dollars in potential revenue because of the "relief order" if all claimholders had paid the annual fee to hang on to that ground. More likely many would have simply let their Peel claims go.

Now the government's saying it has to reject the final recommended Peel plan because it can't afford to compensate the claimholders.

The plan allows existing claims to remain and to be worked. However it prohibits any new claims or roads.

The government’s website says “compensation is not being considered at this time.”