Just a day before the moratorium on claim-staking in the Peel watershed was set to expire May 4, the Yukon government shot out a two-sentence missive formally declaring a last minute extension.
It's for seven months and 27 days or until Dec. 31.
Nobody can stake new claims in the watershed while the ban is in place. Nor will the government issue any new oil, gas or coal rights.
“The government of Yukon yesterday issued an extension to the interim withdrawal from mineral staking for all lands in the Peel watershed region,” said the May 3 media advisory.
“The interim staking withdrawal will apply to subsurface mineral staking administered under the Quartz Mining Act and Placer Mining Act until December 31, 2013.”
The watershed has been protected from new claims and dispositions since Feb. 4, 2010.
The idea was to give the Yukon and First Nation governments time to complete a final land use plan for the region.
The first withdrawal order was for a year. It was renewed in 2011 for another 12 months.
In February 2012, the government agreed to extend the ban again but just for seven months. Four days before the Sept. 4 expiry, it said it would give it another eight months to May 4.
This time the government's extension falls somewhere inbetween at seven months and 27 days.
It'll expire about a month before the "relief order" that applies to the more than 8,400 claims in the Peel. Under that order, the claimholders are relieved of the annual assessment fee of $100 per claim or the equivalent amount of work.
It was imposed in February 2010 along with the staking ban. It's always been renewed a year at a time. It was recently extended until Feb. 4, 2014.
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