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The Mining Act 1990

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The Mining Act, 1990, has a significant role in protecting Ontario’s vast mineral resources and brings forth a set of policies in which promote responsible mining development and extraction. The provincial government plays an integral role in the provinces mining industry because the Act requires that all mineral claims must be recorded and accepted by the Crown which from then the two parties discuss a lease fee for the mineral rights. After locating a mineral claim in an area deemed open by the Crown, there are two options available for leases, the first being “The holder of a mining claim may elect to apply for a lease of the mining rights only.” (Government of Ontario, 2017), while the second option allows both the surface rights and …show more content…

In 2009, the passing of Bill 173, also known as the Mining Amendment Act brought forth various changes that were created with the input of representatives from the mining industry, environmental groups, municipalities, private citizens, and Aboriginal communities (Pratt & Smitherman, 2009). The discussions between the government and these groups helped lead to the implementation of new regulations that promote mineral exploration and development in a manner that recognizes Aboriginal and treaty rights.

The Mining Act does a very good job at protecting certain aspects of the environment such as ensuring that over exploitation of minerals does not occur, or making it mandatory to have a plan in place for closing the mine as well as assuring that there is money to do so. Although there are many things that this Act does right, there are also areas in which there are issues and should be improved. One of the first issues pertaining to this Act is the impact that it fails to mitigate regarding water quality. In areas where mining development occurs, the water quality is drastically affected and a study found that “water from waste rock piles has an ionic profile distinct from unimpacted catchments” (Carey, Wellen, & Shatilla, 2015), meaning that in order to mitigate the impact of the runoff measures must be put in place to limit it. Secondly, the Act does not involve

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