Page 88 By Frank Giorno Licensed prospectors in Ontario can trade in their boots mosquito netting for slippers and a T shirt when staking a mineral right claim in Ontario efec tive April 10 2018 The province s new webbased map staking system called CLAIMaps means anyone with a prospector s li cence can reserve exploration rights for an area from the comfort of their own ofce or home thus avoiding slippery rocky outcrops swamps bogs marshes mosquitoes and other hazards On April 10 2018 Ontario s Min ister of Northern Development and Mines tweeted that the new web based claiming system was ofcially open and invit ed people to give it a try Mining claim registration is now digital in Ontario T oday s ofcial launch of the new Mining Lands Ad ministration System will help ensure Ontario remains a leading jurisdiction for mineral exploration and produc tion Minister Gravelle tweeted From 1906 until early April this year the process for staking a mineral rights claim in Ontario was the same Starting at the northeast corner of your intended parcel drive a 10cen timetrethick wooden stake into the ground then trudge 400 metres south and do the same Continue to move clockwise heading west to drive the next stake then north then east again to complete the square Record your coordinates and report your claim to the Ministry of Northern Develop ment and Mines within 30 days For the next two years you enjoyed ex clusive mineral rights to a 16hectare piece of Ontario The old way of claiming Ontario s mineral deposits became history and Ontario ofcially launched its CLAIMaps webbased claiming sys tem Now anyone with a computer a pros pector with a valid license and knowl edge of the rules will be able to reg ister a claim by clicking on a digital map Ontario is to some extent catching up to other jurisdictions including every other province except Mani toba said Roy Denomme Ministry of Northern Development and Mines project lead for the modernization project Frankly it s the way to go It s bringing Ontario into the 21st cen tury in land acquisition by establish ing a digital system he added More than 14000 online claims had been staked within the frst 48 hours of the province s new system CLAIMaps launching acco rding to the Ministry of Northern Develop ment and Mines CBC Sudbury s Benjamin Aube ex amined two contrasting views among prospectors on the new CLAIMaps webbased system In Aube s report prospector Her mann Daxl a 77year old retired ge ologist who at one time didn t support CLAIMaps but has since become a convert It s really something good that need ed to be done says Daxl But Daxl acknowledged that prospec tors who trul y know the land still have a huge advantage over big com panies making speculative claims On the other side of the CLAIMaps system Eric Marion a prospector for over 25 years who doesn t totally like CLAIMaps because of how it dis plays the data about topography and boundaries in a way that makes the new system almost unusable In Marion s opinion If they would have put it in the hands of the in dustry the ones who use it I think we could have came up with a better system All these glitches that were having now were brought to their at CLAIMaps webbased system in Ontario MIXED REVIEWS The Bjorkman family l to r Karl V eronique Ruth Matt and Jessica standing behind the fnal manually staked claim near Atikokan Ont Jef W altersCBC Contd on pg 88