Application for Reserve

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Mineral Tenure Act, section 22
Coal Act, section 21

Reserves are established under section 22 of the Mineral Tenure Act and section 21 of the Coal Act by regulation of the Chief Gold Commissioner.  In order to take effect, a reserve regulation must be deposited (filed) as a BC Regulation by the Registrar of Regulations in the office of Legislative Counsel.

A reserve may be established for a number of reasons as listed in section 22(2) of the Mineral Tenure Act and section 21(2) of the Coal Act, but the most common are to either prohibit registration of a claim or to restrict the rights acquired.  A "No Registration" reserve prohibits the acquisition of a mineral and/or placer claim, and a "conditional" reserve stipulates the specific conditions or restrictions which apply to a claim registered within the reserve. These reserves only affect claims registered after the effective date of the reserve.

The effective date of a reserve is the date on which it is filed as a B.C. Regulation with the Registrar of Regulations. This effective date is usually a few days after the date on which it is signed by the Chief Gold Commissioner. On the titles reference map, the reserve is notated by the site number corresponding to the area.

Reserves established by B.C. Regulation take effect at the beginning of the day on which the regulation is deposited (filed) with the Registrar of Regulations and this date is stamped by that office on the regulation. In cases where a reserve is terminated, it ceases to have effect at the end of the day which is one of the following:

In the case of an amendment to a reserve, where one existing reserve is being amended or replaced by another, the change becomes effective at the beginning of the day specified in the amending Order, or if no date is specified, the beginning of the effective date of the amending Order.

Most No Registration use the wording "A free miner must not register a mineral claim..." which legally means that

The afore-mentioned wording also reads "claim," not "mineral title," which signifies that an existing valid claim can still be surveyed and taken to lease in an area over which a No Registration  reserve has been established subsequent to the registration of the claim.

The acceptance of an application for a reserve does not in any way guarantee that the reserve will be granted. The applicant should be aware that the application may be denied due to considerations such as mineral potential, the need for multiple land use capability in the area, or another pre-existing use of the land.

The time frame required to complete the processing of the application varies depending on the amount of consultation required with other relevant agencies.  The creation of the reserve will require a minimum of ten weeks or more to complete.  Please note that most reserve applications take more than ten weeks to complete.

There is no recording fee, and a free miner certificate is not required