Dawson City business community fear impact of continued placer mining license delays

Chris MacIntyre · CBC News

· Posted: May 28, 2025 1:49 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 minutes ago

The Dawson City, Yukon's Chamber of Commerce (DCCC) and the Klondike Visitor's Association (KVA) are the latest organizations to amusement their enactment for the Klondike Placer Miner's Association (KPMA) implicit mounting concerns with delays successful the Yukon Government's licence renewal process.

Last week the KPMA said 19 placer excavation operators had their licenses expire portion successful queue for renewal and another 59 licenses are acceptable to lapse by the extremity of this year.

Placer mining is an cognition that uses h2o and gravity to abstracted golden from ungraded and gravel without the usage of chemicals. Placer mining operations successful the Klondike are chiefly family-run and some the enclosure of commerce and visitor's relation accidental placer miners are cardinal to the Dawson system and person been since the days of the Gold Rush.  

"We person a batch of industries that trust upon the placer miners truthful this isn't conscionable going to impact the mining assemblage but alternatively each of these different industries arsenic well," said Justine Hobbs, interim enforcement manager for the DCCC.

Hobbs pointed to section mechanic shops that work mining equipment, restaurants wherever miners devour and market stores wherever mining camps root food.

Hobbs said her enactment supports the KPMA successful asking the territorial government to supply impermanent extensions to existent licence holders waiting for their renewal. 

"We privation to forestall that economical disruption," Hobbs said. " And we besides privation to marque definite the biology assessments are done thoroughly and they're good conducted truthful a impermanent hold would let for that."

Ricky Mawunganidze is the enforcement manager for the Klondike Visitor's Association.

He said placer mining brings successful implicit fractional of the commercialized gross the municipality sees annually, adding that if placer miners aren't capable to work they aren't re-investing backmost into the community.

He calls it a lose-lose situation.

Mawunganidze is besides urging the Yukon Government to temporarily widen the licenses, arsenic good arsenic support the KVA and different funny organizations informed.

"When we person situations similar this that person the imaginable to person dire implications not lone for a azygous assemblage but, you know, a assemblage that contributes implicit 50 per cent to the Dawson economy, I deliberation determination is worth successful transparency," Mawunganidze said. "Without that, the presumption is that not capable is being done to resoluteness this issue."

Laura Seeley, spokesperson for the Yukon authorities furniture said successful an email that the territorial authorities anticipates making an announcement connected the contented soon.