First Nations women have staked a mining claim on the Minister of Energy and Mine’s private property.
Chair of BC’s First Nations Women Advocating Responsible Mining (FNWARM), Bev Sellars says that placer mining should be a real concern to the general public as well.
“It’s so easy to go online and stake a claim. When I was staking Bill Bennett’s claim, I thought there’s got to be something to stop me-this is private property. It amazed me how easy and how cheaply it was to stake the claim.”
Sellars says she paid only about $129 to stake Bennett’s property and to obtain her free miner’s certificate.
She says that the system is at the root of confrontations and title and rights issues with First Nations, and that it can also take much of the blame for thousands of abandoned mines that litter the province many of which are still having toxic effects on land and water.