Undermining our future : how mining's privileged access to land harms people and the environment, a discussion paper on the need to reform mineral tenure law in Canada

There are three primary rights associated with the law of free entry: • the right of entry and access on lands that may contain minerals; • the right to locate and register a claim without consulting the Crown; and • the right to acquire a mineral lease with no discretion on the part of the Crown. [...] Barry Barton, author of “The Canadian Law of Mining” has noted, the “risks of overstating the impact of the frontier in North American history are well known, but the effect of the gold rush legislation is still unmistakable.”8 Free entry in Canada started in the West, and was first written into the Goldfields Act of BC in 1859. [...] Because of the detailed work and challenges of technical accuracy with the physical staking process, the rule of interpretation is “substantial compliance” with the requirements of the statute.15. [...] Claim jumpers, those who seek to assert that their claims prevail over those of others, are vilified by the industry, and claim-jumping is generally an ill-perceived course of action.17 Staking is the root of acquiring mineral rights and the fundamental source that determines the extent and validity of the rights under the claim. [...] Given the changes over the years, the true extent of a grant over the surface and the various minerals can only be construed by referring not only to the grant itself, but the mining legislation in force at the time of the grant.28.