Maintaining Mineral and Placer Claims (BC)

A mineral or placer claim has a set expiry date (the “Good To Date”), and in order to maintain the claim beyond that expiry date, the recorded holder (or an agent) must, on or before the expiry date, register either exploration and development work that was performed on the claim, or a payment instead of exploration and development. Failure to maintain a claim results in automatic forfeiture at the end (midnight) of the expiry date; there is no notice to the claim holder prior to forfeiture.

When exploration and development work or a payment instead of work is registered, you may advance the claim forward to any new date. With a payment instead of work the minimum requirement is 6 months, and the new date cannot exceed one year from the current expiry date; with work, it may be any date up to a maximum of ten years beyond the current anniversary year. “Anniversary year” means the period of time that you are now in from the last expiry date to the next immediate expiry date.

All recorded holders of a claim must hold a valid FMC when either work or a payment is registered on the claim.

Clients need to register a certain value of work or a "cash-in-lieu of work" payment to their claims in MTO. The following are the costs required to maintain a claim for one year:

Mineral Claim - Work Requirement:

  • $5 per hectare for anniversary years 1 and 2;
  • $10 per hectare for anniversary years 3 and 4;
  • $15 per hectare for anniversary years 5 and 6; and
  • $20 per hectare for subsequent anniversary years

Mineral Claim - Cash-in-lieu of work:

  • $10 per hectare for anniversary years 1 and 2;
  • $20 per hectare for anniversary years 3 and 4;
  • $30 per hectare for anniversary years 5 and 6; and
  • $40 per hectare for subsequent anniversary years

Placer Claim - Work Requirement:

  • $20 per hectare

Placer Claim - Cash-in-lieu of work:

  • $40 per hectare

A permit is required before any work is performed on a claim. Permitting is administered by the regional mining offices (not the Mineral Titles Branch).