Inclusion of Aboriginal consultation costs as an eligible expense for the retention of proceeds from the sale of samples taken for testing on leases, licences, and other mining lands

Once recent amendments to the Mining Act are proclaimed, lessees, licencees, and owners of other mining lands will be able to request permission to sell and retain the proceeds from materials extracted for the purposes of testing. The proceeds of that sale which can be retained by the proponent cannot exceed the allowable expenses of their testing activity.

The allowable expenses are currently limited to the cost to the proponent of the related “excavation, processing, transportation, testing, evaluation and rehabilitation”. Costs of Aboriginal consultation are proposed to be added to the list.

As a result of engagement on bulk sampling-related items in Ontario’s Bill 13, the Supporting People and Businesses Act, 2021, announced October 7, 2021, the Ministry received feedback from both industry and an Aboriginal community that there is interest in having consultation-related costs included in the list of allowable expenses for testing mineral content from mining claims and from other mining lands.

This proposed amendment would allow proponents to submit consultation-related costs reasonably incurred during consultation with Aboriginal communities to ensure a consistent approach to eligible consultation costs considered for other activities regulated under the Mining Act.