Mineral Titles News, Notices and Announcements
Last updated on June 24, 2025Latest news and announcements from the Mineral Titles office.
June 24, 2025 - Orders in Council in place for the Teẑtan Biny (Fish Lake) area within Tŝilhqot’in Nation territory
To resolve the long-standing conflict over the New Prosperity mineral tenures in the Teẑtan Biny (Fish Lake) area of Tŝilhqot’in territory, the Tŝilhqot’in Nation, the Province and Taseko Mines Limited have recently signed the Teẑtan Biny Gagaghut’i (Teẑtan Biny Agreement) that provides for the establishment of the:
- Land and Resource (Teẑtan Area) Management Order under Section 7 of the Environment and Land Use Act, Order in Council 284/2025,
- Required Consent (Teẑtan Area Mining Projects) Regulation under Section 7 of the Environmental Assessment Act Order in Council 285/2025, and
- Authorization for the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation to negotiate an agreement with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government under Section 7 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act, Order in Council 283/2025.
The Teẑtan Area Management Order
The Teẑtan Area Management Order will be in effect from June 18, 2025, to May 31, 2035, with the potential for renewal or extension of any of the interim measures described below, to support the implementation of the Teẑtan Biny Gagaghut’i Agreement, including a land use planning process for the Teẑtan Biny area (refer to OIC 284/2025 to view map of Teẑtan Area). Through this order, the following interim mineral tenure, land, and forestry measures apply:
- No Registration Reserve: No further mineral or placer claims may be registered in the Teẑtan Area until May 31, 2035.
- No disposition of Crown land: The disposition of Crown land within the Specified Mineral Area, a smaller area within the Teẑtan Area that corresponds to the area where Taseko Mines hold mineral tenures, is prohibited until May 31, 2035.
- No forestry: Until May 31, 2035 in the Specified Mineral Area, no forestry operational plans may be approved and no Forest Act agreements or special use permits may be issued, except for permits related to reforestation.
- Extension of the New Prosperity mineral tenures: The expiry dates for the mineral claims and the mining lease in the Specified Mineral Area are extended – without the obligation to complete assessment work or make payments in lieu (for the mineral claims), or to make lease payments (for the mining lease) – so that each tenure will have the same amount of time until expiry as it did when the parties initially started their resolution discussions in 2019.
For existing claim registrants, it’s important to note that if a cell claim in the Teẑtan Area expires, the cell cannot be subsequently registered while the order remains in effect. If you have any questions regarding your tenure, please contact the Mineral Titles Branch at the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals at mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca.
The Required Consent (Teẑtan Area Mining Projects) Regulation
The Required Consent (Teẑtan Area Mining Projects) Regulation designates the Teẑtan Area Agreement that requires the Tŝilhqot’in Nation’s consent for any mine in the Teẑtan Area that is a reviewable project under the Environmental Assessment Act to proceed.
Agreement negotiation under Section 7 of the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act
The Province has authorized the Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation to negotiate an agreement pursuant to the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act with the Tŝilhqot’in National Government, if and when needed, which would set out the process to guide how B.C. and the Tŝilhqot’in Nation will address the requirement for Tŝilhqot’in Nation consent in any potential environmental assessment process for a reviewable mining project in the Teẑtan Area.
For more information on the Teẑtan Biny Gagaghut’i (Teẑtan Biny Agreement), follow the links below:
- Teẑtan Biny Gagaghut’i (Teẑtan Biny Agreement)
- Teẑtan Biny Gagaghut’i (Teẑtan Biny Agreement) summary
June 12, 2025 – Next Cell Release Scheduled for June 25, 2025 at 1 PM PDT
The next cell release has been scheduled for Wednesday, June 25th, 2025 at 1:00 PM PDT
Below are links to the mineral and placer lists of cells key ID’s that will be released. The cells contained on these lists may be from titles where:
- A title forfeited due to the expiry of a time extension before the title was brought into good standing;
- A title forfeited because an exploration and development work event was reduced or cancelled (section 33 orders) and the resulting amount of maintenance was insufficient to keep the title in good standing;
- A cell being made available due to a previous incorrect status; or
- A cell being made available early due to an abandonment or reduction.
Please note that these lists of cell key ID’s are subject to change.
June 3, 2025 - Establishment of an Environment and Land Use Act Order in Council Temporarily Pausing Registration of Mineral and Placer Claims and Coal Licence dispositions over a Defined Area in Northcentral British Columbia (B.C.)
Through B.C.’s land use planning program, the Province has partnered with the Kaska First Nations to update land use direction over the Kaska First Nations’ territory within BC.
This collaborative and inclusive 12-month land use planning process will engage the mining and mineral exploration industry; local government and communities; other stakeholders and the public in the development of an updated land use regime in northcentral BC to bring certainty and improved decision-making efficiencies.
In support of this work, the Province has enacted an Order in Council (OIC) under s. 7 of the Environment and Land Use Act in northcentral BC. The OIC prevents registration of new mineral and placer claims, and the disposition of new coal licenses in the area. The OIC is effective as of June 3, 2025, and will remain in place for a period of 12 months.
The 1-year tenuring pause applies to an area of ecological and cultural importance to Kaska First Nations while the land use planning process is underway.
Importantly, the Order does not affect existing claim registrations or the ability to develop and carry out work on existing tenures. Note that if a cell claim in the area expires, the cell cannot be subsequently registered while the OIC remains in effect.
Applications received before June 3, 2025 within the above areas will be held and not processed during the tenure pause period. Applications can be withdrawn at any time by sending a request with details to Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca.
If an application is withdrawn, fees will be returned to the applicant.
If you have any questions about the Kaska-BC land use planning project, please visit the Kaska-BC Land Use Plan website or email kaska.LUP@gov.bc.ca.
If you have any questions regarding your tenure, please visit the Environment and Land Use Act Orders and No Registration Reserves for Northwest and Northcentral B.C. website, our FAQ or contact the Mineral Titles Branch at the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals at mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca.
June 3, 2025 - Establishment of an Environment and Land Use Act Order in Council Temporarily Pausing Registration of Mineral and Placer Claims and disposition of new coal licences over a Defined Area in Northwest British Columbia (BC)
Through BC’s land use planning program, the Province is partnering with the Tahltan First Nation (Tahltan) and the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN) to update land use direction in two priority planning areas.
Collaborative and inclusive 12-month planning processes will engage the mining and mineral exploration industry; local government and communities; other stakeholders and the public in the development of an updated land use regime in northwest BC to bring certainty and improved decision-making efficiencies.
In support of this work, the Province has enacted an Order in Council (OIC) under s. 7 of the Environment and Land Use Act in northwest BC. The OIC prevents registration of new mineral and placer claims, and the disposition of new coal licenses in the area identified in the attached map. The OIC is effective as of June 3, 2025, and will remain in place for a period of 12 months.
The 1-year tenuring pause applies to an area of ecological and cultural importance to the Tahltan and Taku River Tlingit First Nations while the land use planning process is underway.
Importantly, the Order does not affect existing claim registrations or the ability to develop and carry out work on existing tenures. Note that if a cell claim in the area expires, the cell cannot be subsequently registered while the OIC remains in effect.
Applications received before June 3, 2025 within the above areas will be held and not processed during the tenure pause period. Applications can be withdrawn at any time by sending a request with details to Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca.
If an application is withdrawn, fees will be returned to the applicant.
If you have any questions about the land use planning process with Tahltan, please visit the Tahltan-BC Land Use Plan website or email TahltanBC_LUP_engage@gov.bc.ca.
If you have questions about the land use planning process with TRTFN, please visit the TRT-BC Land Use Plan website or email TlatsiniPlanningProject@gov.bc.ca.
If you have any questions regarding your tenure, please visit our FAQ, the Environment and Land Use Act Orders and No Registration Reserves for Northwest and Northcentral B.C. website, our FAQ or contact the Mineral Titles Branch at the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals at mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca.
June 3, 2025 – Reserves established over portions of the Upper Taku River and Tulsequah Watershed
The Chief Gold Commissioner (CGC) has enacted mineral reserves under s. 22(2)(a) of the Mineral Tenure Act – often referred to as a No Registration Reserve (NRR) – over portions of the Tulsequah watershed and Upper Taku River watershed. The NRR is effective as of June 3, 2025 and prevents registration of mineral and placer claims in the areas identified in the attached map for a period of 12 months.
Through B.C.’s land use planning program, the Province is partnering with the Taku River Tlingit First Nation (TRTFN) to update land use direction in the Taku River Watershed.
This collaborative land use planning process will engage the mining and mineral exploration industry; local government and communities; stakeholders and the public, and will result in an amendment to the approved Wόoshtin wudidaa Atlin Taku Land Use Plan.
This 1-year tenuring pause will apply to the identified area of ecological and cultural importance to TRTFN while the land use planning process is underway.
The NRR does not affect existing claim registrations or impact the ability to develop and carry out work on existing tenures. Note that if a cell claim in the area expires, the cell cannot be subsequently registered while the NRR remains in effect.
Applications received before June 3, 2025 within the above areas will be held and not processed during the tenure pause period. Applications can be withdrawn at any time by sending a request with details to Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca.
If an application is withdrawn, fees will be returned to the applicant.
For more information related to land use planning in the Taku River Watershed, please visit the Land and Water Planning website or email TlatsiniPlanningProject@gov.bc.ca.
If you have any questions regarding your tenure, please visit the Environment and Land Use Act Orders and No Registration Reserves for Northwest and Northcentral B.C. website or contact the Mineral Titles Branch at the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals at mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca.
June 3, 2025 – Reserves established over portions of the Meziadin River
Watershed
The Chief Gold Commissioner (CGC) has enacted a mineral reserve under s. 22(2)(a) of the Mineral Tenure Act – often referred to as a No Registration Reserve (NRR) – over a portion of the Meziadin River Watershed. The NRR is effective as of June 3, 2025, and prevents registration of mineral claims in the area identified in the attached map for a period of 12 months.
Through B.C.’s land use planning program, the Province is working with the Gitanyow First Nation and the Nisga’a Lisims Government to explore updates to land use direction in the Meziadin River Watershed.
The planning process will engage the mining and mineral exploration industry; local government and communities; stakeholders and the public. The NRR has been established as part of early salmon habitat conservation discussions taking place under the adaptive management provisions in the approved Nass South Sustainable Resource Management Plan. The 12-month tenuring pause will apply to the identified area (see attached map) while the land use planning process is underway.
The NRR does not affect existing claim registrations or impact the ability to develop and carry out work on existing tenures. Note that if a cell claim in the area expires, the cell cannot be subsequently registered while the NRR remains in effect.
Applications received before June 3, 2025 within the above areas will be held and not processed during the tenure pause period. Applications can be withdrawn at any time by sending a request with details to Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca.
If an application is withdrawn, fees will be returned to the applicant.
If you have any questions about the Meziadin No Registration Reserve or land use planning in the Meziadin River Watershed, please visit the Planning in Partnership website or email info.Meziadin@gov.bc.ca.
If you have any questions regarding your tenure, please visit the Environment and Land Use Act Orders and No Registration Reserves for Northwest and Northcentral B.C. website or contact the Mineral Titles Branch at the Ministry of Mining and Critical Minerals at mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca.
June 3, 2025 - Cells Related to Title Forfeitures of June 2, 2025
As a result of changes being made to the Mineral Titles Online application on the morning of June 3, 2025, the cells related to claims that forfeited or were terminated at midnight on June 2, 2025, did not become available for application as normal. These cells will be included in the next cell release.
June 2, 2025 - Mineral Titles Online unavailable for system update
Mineral Titles Online will be unavailable on June 3rd, 2025 from 9:00 am for approximately 6 hours. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please note the changes may take longer which may affect the timing of bringing MTO back online.
May 26, 2025 - Limited availability of Title Overlap Reports
Mineral Titles Online (MTO) is currently experiencing issues that are preventing the generation of Title Overlap Reports (TORRs) in certain regions of the province. Our team is actively working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible. For updates and further information, please visit our News, Notices and Announcements page.
May 26, 2025 - Mineral Titles Online is now available
Mineral Titles Online is now available.
May 26, 2025 - Mineral Titles Online is Unavailable
Mineral Titles Online (MTO) is currently unavailable. We are working to resolve this issue and bring it back online as soon as possible. Thank you for your ongoing patience.
May 22, 2025 - Temporary closure at Mineral Titles Branch
The Mineral Titles Branch office located at 203-865 Hornby St, Vancouver B.C. is temporarily closed. During this time, this office will only be accepting clients in person by appointment until otherwise stated. Appointments can be made by contacting the Mineral Titles Office at mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca.
May 14, 2025 – Mineral Titles Online unavailable for system update
The MTO application will be taken offline starting at approximately 1:00 PM on May 15, 2025 to make required system updates. The outage will last approximately 2 hours. Please note the changes may take longer which may affect the timing of bringing MTO back online.
April 17, 2025 - Changes to Login Experience
Starting April 23, 2025, at 11:45 am, Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) is being enabled for the internet-based MTO system. You should experience little change to your login process since MFA is not required for BCeID-accessed services. A new Directory Select screen will appear when logging into the MTO system. You will be required to select your account type before proceeding. See below an example of the Directory Select screen:
If you have any questions, please reach out to the Mineral Titles Branch at Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca or the BCeID Helpdesk.
We also invite you to subscribe to our mailing list to receive updates on the MTO system modernization.
April 10, 2025 - Error when linking Statement of Work reports with another filing event
It has been brought to our attention that MTO is providing a generic error when trying to link a Statement of Work report submission with an existing Exploration and Development/Expiry Date Change event. We will be working to correct this, until that time please upload your reports without linking them to the original event and then send an email to Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca with the event numbers to be linked and we will manually track and link these events once a fix can be completed.
March 25, 2025 – Mineral Claims Consultation Framework in effect March 25, 2025
Today, changes have been made to Mineral Titles Online, the province of BC’s registry of mineral, placer and coal rights, to bring the Mineral Claims Consultation Framework (MCCF) into effect.
- For more information:
- the Mineral Titles Branch website has been updated to reflect the changes.
- MCCF Policy
- MCCF Consultation Guidance
- Step-by-step instructions on how to apply for a claim.
Need assistance with your application for a mineral or placer claim?
Please continue to contact Mineral Titles Branch for support at:
Email: Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca
Voice-Mail: 1-866-616-4999
Fax: 604-660-2653
March 20, 2025 – Mineral Titles Online unavailable for system update related to the Mineral Claim Consultation Framework
The MTO application will be taken offline starting at approximately 11:30 AM on March 25, 2025 to make required system updates that enable the claims application system. The outage will last approximately 5 hours. Please note the changes may take longer which may affect the timing of bringing MTO back online.
If you have any mineral titles with a good to date of March 25, 2025, and you have the intention of registering exploration and development work or registering payment instead of exploration, we suggest that you do so prior to 11:00 am on March 25, 2025, to ensure your title(s) remain in good standing.
Please check News, Notices and Announcements on the Mineral Title Branch website for any changes or updates regarding this outage.
March 12, 2025 – Credit card payments in mineral titles online are not working
The third-party service that Mineral Titles Online uses to process credit card payments is currently experiencing an issue where the payment screens are missing the credit card information input fields and cannot process payments. We are working directly with the provider of this service to resolve the issue as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience as we work to resolve this.
March 07, 2025 – Planned Outage of MTO for System Updates
Mineral Titles Online will be unavailable on March 10th, 2025 starting at 12:00 pm for approximately 30 minutes for a planned service window. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
February 13, 2025 – Planned Outage of MTO for System Updates
Mineral Titles Online will be unavailable on February 18th, 2025 starting at 9:00 am for a planned service window. The service will be available in time for the daily 10:00 am release of forfeited cells. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
February 6, 2025 – Next Cell Release Scheduled for February 18, 2025 at 1 PM PST
The next cell release has been scheduled for Tuesday, February 18, 2025 at 1:00 pm PST.
Below are links to the mineral and placer lists of cells key ID’s that will be released. The cells contained on these lists may be from titles where:
- A title forfeited due to the expiry of a time extension before the title was brought into good standing;
- A title forfeited because an exploration and development work event was reduced or cancelled (section 33 orders) and the resulting amount of maintenance was insufficient to keep the title in good standing;
- A cell being made available due to a previous incorrect status; or
- A cell being made available early due to an abandonment or reduction.
Please note that these lists of cell key ID’s are subject to change.
Jan 28, 2025 – Mastercard Payments are not Being Accepted
Due to technical difficulties MTO is not able to process payments being made with Mastercard. This does not impact other types of credit card. We are actively working on resolving this issue and appreciate your patience. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause.
January 22, 2025 – Modernizing Mineral Titles Online (MMTO) Project & Internal User Survey Invitation
We are excited to introduce the Modernizing Mineral Titles Online (MMTO) project and invite you to participate in a survey for all MTO users, registered and public.
For more information about the project and to complete the survey, please visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/mineral-exploration-mining/mineral-claims-consultation-framework/mineral-titles-online-registry
If you have any comments or questions about the MMTO project, the Mineral Claim Consultation Framework (MCCF), or future MTA reform please contact us at MTA@gov.bc.ca.
Jan 21, 2025 – Planned Outage of MTO for System Updates
Mineral Titles Online will be unavailable on Jan 23 between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM while system improvements are made. Updates to the system can be seen in the release notes located here.
Jan 21, 2025 – Credit Card Payment System Maintenance
The service that MTO uses to process credit card payments will be going through an emergency maintenance window to apply security patches on Jan 22nd between 10:00 PM and 12:00 AM. During this time, there may be a intermittent periods of downtime for credit card payments.
January 09, 2025 – Mineral Titles Branch Vancouver Office Moving
The Mineral Titles Branch Vancouver Office will be temporarily closed until Tuesday January 14th, 2025 to facilitate it’s relocation. The new office will be located at:
203 – 865 Hornby St,
Vancouver, BC
V6Z 2G3
At this time, the office will continue to be open by appointment only and appointments can be made by contacting the Mineral Titles Branch at 1-866-616-4999 or Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca.