The Ontario Mining and Lands Commissioner has ruled that a full hearing must be held into Inco’s (N-T) contesting of two mining claims that were staked in March by Wallbridge Mining (WM-T).
Wallbridge has attempted to record two mining claims that cover 1.5 sq. km of mineral rights under the waters of Kelly Lake, near Sudbury, Ont., and encompass the entire area of a major nickel and platinum-group-metals deposit discovered by Inco in 1997.
“The land in question was controlled by a binding licence of occupation that was issued in 1947,” says Wayne Whymark, Wallbridge’s president. “The mining license of occupation (MLO) had a proviso for a yearly rental payment that, if late by more than one month, would void the licence and the land would revert back to the crown land system and be open for staking. That’s what we began to investigate.”
Wallbridge contends that the MLO became void and the lands under it became open to staking prior to June 2, 1953, and remained open until Wallbridge staked them.
“Really, in the past 50 years, if anyone had done their homework they probably could have figured this out and gone and staked the land,” says Whymark.
Wallbridge says it came across the lapsed rental payment issue last year while it was analysing evidence for a hearing regarding an island on Kelly Lake. Inco was served with a notice of appeal under a subsection of Ontario’s mining act. The mining recorder’s office in Sudbury directed the matter to the office of the mining and lands commissioner.
At a hearing on June 27, Inco and the Ontario government argued that Wallbridge was not entitled to contest the validity of Inco’s MLO. They requested that Wallbridge’s action be quashed. The commissioner ordered a full hearing for Dec. 3. Inco has been ordered to disclose its old rental payment records concerning the MLO.
In March 2000, Inco put the deposit’s initial resource at 10.5 million tonnes grading 1.77% nickel, 1.34% copper and 3.6 grams platinum group metals (PGMs) per tonne.
The deposit is accessible by means of existing infrastructure near the Copper Cliff South mine.
In comparison, Inco’s Ontario mines ore averaging 1.41% nickel, 1.4% copper and 1.8 grams PGMs.
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