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| | April 15, 2010
Mining Juniors Continue Tug of War
Publisher: Advertiser
Author: Sue Hickey
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| | Perhaps the days of miners fighting over claims in the days of the Wild West have not gone away, but merely changed locale.
And there's no sign the latest dispute between two junior mining companies over a potentially rich property near Buchans is going to end soon.
The players are CanStar Resources and Vinland Resources. The locale is the Mary March property near Buchans, an area known for being rich in VMS (volcanogenic massive sulphides) deposits, which are associated with the presence of gold and base metals.
Canstar says Vinland doesn't have the right to stake claims at Mary March. Newfoundland's Supreme Court had dismissed Vinland's appeal to overturn an earlier ruling that favoured Canstar, and sent it to the Mineral Rights Board.
In turn, Vinland filed another appeal Feb. 26 this year, and Canstar responded March 24.
The drawn-out process has been stirring up frustrations among several of the stakeholders involved, including company executives, shareholders and government officials.
"Whoever cracks this will be a hero for the province," stated Don Clark, a shareholder in Canstar who describes himself as a concerned citizen. "What if Mary March ends up similar to the Buchans mine. The Mary March property has huge potential."
He wondered why the province granted a 60-day extension to the Mineral Rights Adjudication Board to render a decision on the grievance filed by Vinland.
In a letter to Mr. Clark this past September, Richard Wardle, assistant deputy minister for mines in the Department of Natural Resources, said government has received several responses similar to Mr. Clark's, all of which expressed frustration and disappointment with this latest delay and asking for the reasons.
"The board has a very difficult task in this matter, and has been presented with a very large volume of evidentiary material that requires a detailed and diligent assessment as part of the process to render a decision," he stated in the letter provided to the Advertiser by Mr. Clark.
"The request by the board for an additional 60 days was not considered unreasonable under the circumstances. It is not in the provincial interest to see this matter stalled. However, we do have to work with the established grievance procedure and the courts to resolve this matter."
Al Chislett, head of Vinland, declined to comment on the ongoing debate. However, his representative Yvonne Dawe stated on Mr. Chislett's behalf that he didn't want to comment, as the matter is still before the courts.
But Harry Hodge, chairman of Canstar Resources, says it's a very complicated issue that involves the old A.N.D. company charter lands.
Government initially thought the lands were on the maps, but others suggested the boundary wasn't exactly at the location now being disputed. This is a matter going back to the old A.N.D. Company back almost a century ago, but the legal issues have to yet to be resolved.
Until the final word is brought down, the property remains dormant.
"It's very hazy and murky when you go back that far," said Mr. Hodge. "The claim by Mr. Chislett is that the property was not properly transferred at some point in history almost 90 years ago. That's been shot down in hearings three times now, but he's very persistent.
"It's very frustrating, because we have a great property which we want to go in and develop and sign a mine on it, and we can't do it."
The minerals in question are gold, silver, copper, lead and zinc. It is close to the Buchans mine in terms of the mineralogy, he said.
"It's all very high grade, but we can't go it and do something about it," Mr. Hodge added. |
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| | You can view the Previous Industry Articles item: Sat Apr 24, 2010, Claims Battle Costing the Province Jobs and Money
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