The province’s plan to fast-track mining projects begins with changes to the permitting process that allow the industry to file a joint application to launch a technical review of how their mine will operate, alongside the environmental assessment that determines its impact on surrounding land and water.
Combining these two major aspects of the permitting process in one submission could reduce approval times by years and advance the 18 critical mineral and energy projects worth $20 billion the BC government is trying to expedite in response to the threat of tariffs from the United States.
“It used to be the environmental assessment first, and then the mining sector technical review once they finish that,” said Jagrup Brar, minister of mining and critical minerals.
“But now we have just one joint application that will save time without compromising any environmental standards, and we move forward reconciliation with First Nations at the same time.”
Previously, BC mine projects required between 10 and 15 years to approve. However, Brar noted that the technical assessment and environmental review of the Cariboo Gold project, developed by Osisko Development Corporation near Barkerville, received Mines Act approval in November after less than five years.
The assessment process for developing the Blackwater Gold mine, 160 kilometres southwest of Prince George, took 47 months for Artemis Gold Inc. after the company acquired the mineral rights from New Gold in October 2020.
Brar said having fixed timelines in the permitting process will also reduce delays.
Spending on mining exploration in BC dropped in 2024 to $552 million, down from $643 million in 2023 and $740 million in 2022, a year in which there was record spending on metals exploration.
The EY report, based on the 2024 BC Mineral and Coal Exploration Survey, suggests policy complications are deterring investment in BC mining projects, while the industry continues to expand in other provinces.
“Given the increases in expenditure in Ontario, Québec and Saskatchewan, an opportunity may exist for BC to go beyond its mineral exploration tax credit and explore other mineral exploration funding and incentive programs to support juniors with financing of new and existing projects,” states the report.
“Difficult policy conditions surrounding land access, environmental regulation and permitting delays associated with exploration, along with expected changes to the mineral tenure regime, have added to the challenges facing BC’s exploration industry. According to data provided by the Mining Association of British Columbia, there are approximately $38 billion of economic opportunities in the pipeline awaiting investment decisions or being sidelined due to the aforementioned challenges. Lengthy timelines and uncertainty around regulations may lead to project abandonment or lost investment funding.”
This year, the provincial government amended the Mineral Tenure Act and Environmental Assessment Act. The new framework is in response to a BC Supreme Court decision in 2023 that ruled the Ehattesaht and Gitxaała First Nations' title rights were not recognized before a staking claim was approved and that automatically granting mineral claims to industry can have adverse effects on First Nations.
The government faced criticism from First Nations for drafting the new legislation without consultation with Indigenous groups as outlined in the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA).
The mineral rights consultation framework that took effect March 25 has not been well received by either side.
Robert Phillips of the First Nations Leadership Council told CBC News the new rules make it more difficult for Indigenous councils to respond to claims on traditional territory.
“We're talking thousands and thousands of referrals that hit the tables of First Nations, then we get overburdened,” he said. “Already there are people that work with First Nations that are doing 10 jobs beyond a job that they're doing already.”
The day a staking claim is filed starts the clock, and the company then has 20 days to secure First Nations approval before the application can proceed to licensing. The revised mineral claim consultation period adds a minimum of 60 days to the process of staking a claim, and if it goes to the maximum of 90 days, prospectors could face a wait of 2½ years before they can begin the work of transforming a claim into a mine.
“On March 25, we went from having a process online that was pretty much instant to introducing this mineral claims framework and an application process instead,” said Rich Truman, senior director of external affairs at the Association for Mineral Exploration.
“Once you have that mineral claim, it doesn’t give you the right to do that much on the ground. You can go to the site and maybe take a few samples, but you can’t do anything mechanical. Once you get to the point where you want to do some drilling or dig some trenches, that’s the point where the whole permitting process begins.”
Indigenous consultation is required before a notice of work can be issued, which grants permission to start digging. The average approval time for a notice of work is 150 days.
“We advise our members to start talking to nations as soon as they can in this process,” said Truman. “It might not turn into a mine, but just be clear on what you’re doing.
“Everybody that we talk to, whether it’s investors or our members of government or Indigenous groups, the one word that always comes up is certainty. That’s what people are looking for. So if something’s going to take three months or six months or 12 months, that’s OK, as long as we can be clear and certain about it. We’re working hard with government to make sure there’s as much certainty as possible in the process. That’s what we really need to keep investment coming back into BC.”
Brar took over the mining portfolio just after the October election and has toured most of the province’s mines since, including his second visit to Blackwater Gold on May 30, a few weeks after the gold/silver mine went into production. Built in just 22 months, the initial phase of processing is complete, and Artemis already has permits in place to proceed with the second phase, which would double its productivity.
“The Artemis/Blackwater Gold mine is a great example in the mining industry; it’s the cleanest and has strong support from the First Nations, and that’s very important to move the mining sector forward,” said Brar.
“Mining overall provides about 40,000 family-supporting jobs to the people of British Columbia and supplies critical minerals that are essential to building a green economy. It has advanced reconciliation with First Nations, as we have seen in this case. This is a great example for us to show the world that we are moving forward the mining sector so more people are interested in this province.”
Brar said there are more than 20 mega-scale mining projects in the planning stages, worth an estimated $50 billion to the provincial economy and capable of creating 10,000 jobs. But that won’t happen unless the province can attract international investors.
“There are two or three projects that have the permits they need, but they aren’t moving forward because they couldn’t find investment, so we are working on that piece too,” he said.
“I think once we improve the permitting process, we are doing very responsible mining in the sector, and there are a lot of people in the global community who want responsibly prepared or developed products.”
Brar says the federal government also has a vital role to play in creating economic incentives that will convince international backers to invest in resource development in Canada.
“There are certain projects which are reviewed by both the federal government and us, so we need to find a way that only one level of government actually takes action, so the federal government has to be on board,” said Brar. “There’s infrastructure we need to build and capacity issues with First Nations, and the federal government can play a huge role in that situation.”
