Yukon placer miners facing shutdowns as licences expire while miners wait for renewals

Chris MacIntyre · CBC News

· Posted: May 25, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: May 25

The Klondike Placer Miners' Association says it's pausing each engagement and high-level discussions with the Yukon authorities until the authorities comes up with a solution to expedite licence renewals.

Miners' operating licences person been expiring portion they've been waiting for renewals — and immoderate person been waiting for years, said Will Fellers, the president of the association.

"They've applied for their licences — immoderate a year, immoderate implicit 2 years agone — and they've been benignant of mislaid successful the process," Fellers said.

"We've brought this to the attraction of the authorities galore times implicit the past fewer years that this was coming, and we haven't had immoderate resolution. So we're trying to bash what we tin truthful we tin get our operators to support moving with valid licences."

Earlier this year, immoderate placer miners began speaking retired astir the issue. Fellers said he's present alert of astir 20 placer miners whose licences person expired portion they've been waiting for their renewals to marque it done the queue.

According to Fellers, 59 operators hazard losing their licences this play if they expire earlier getting reviewed and renewed.

What happens erstwhile a licence expires?

Fellers said it's amerciable for lapsed licence holders to bash immoderate enactment connected their site. That means nary moving equipment, and no sluicing material.

"There's not truly overmuch they tin bash due to the fact that they're not legally allowed to beryllium connected the onshore anymore," Fellers said. "We're expected to battalion up everything and vacate the property. If we are forced to pay what the outgo would beryllium to determination everything off to immoderate different site, conscionable the freight outgo unsocial would beryllium hundreds of thousands of dollars."

Some mightiness beryllium capable to swallow that cost, helium said — but galore would spell bankrupt.

Fellers said galore of the miners successful queue for renewal person been operating their family-run sites for decades. He said since licences are bully for 10 years, there should person been nary surprises for the government or delays erstwhile it came clip to renew licences. 

"We're not proceeding our voices successful the processes they're moving on. With each the accusation we enactment retired to them, we don't spot a batch of the important worldly getting enactment into the processes they're doing, and we don't person a solution to get the miners backmost to enactment successful clip for this season," helium said.

CBC News reached retired to John Streicker, the territory's curate of Energy, Mines, and Resources, for comment. Cabinet Communications responded saying the curate was unavailable but offered a connection which read: "The authorities of Yukon remains focused connected improving permitting timelines and regulatory processes to amended enactment the placer mining industry."

The connection added that the authorities respects the Klondike Placer Miners' Association's determination to intermission high-level engagement and volition stay committed to collaborating with them successful the future.

Extend existent and expired licences, immoderate suggest

For years, Brooke Rudolph served arsenic the KPMA's enforcement manager and adviser.

During the association's yearly wide gathering successful Dawson City, Yukon, past weekend, she announced she was resigning from the presumption retired of vexation implicit this peculiar issue.

"As I said to the membership, the explanation of insanity is doing the aforesaid happening and expecting a antithetic outcome," Rudolph told CBC News.

"If I conscionable keep, you know, banging my caput against the partition of this breached system, I'm not being a bully relation exemplary for my kids. I'm not helping the manufacture astatine all. So what I'm hoping is by leaving and creating a spread successful the manufacture that I dearly love, that determination is accidental for affirmative alteration to capable that space."

Rudolph said she wants to spot the authorities widen the current and expired placer mining licences that are waiting to beryllium reviewed and renewed. She said galore of the licences successful the queue are from placer miners who've already been done the renewal process twice.

She said extending the licences could springiness regulators capable clip to wide the backlog.

In February, the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board confirmed to CBC it takes them up to 10 months to process a people 4 placer task application.

It's past up to a determination assemblage — typically formed by the territorial and section First Nation governments — to o.k. the licence oregon not.

Those timelines are each good and fine, Rudolph said, but it shouldn't beryllium miners paying the terms of delays.

"The placer manufacture can't beryllium unopen down and enactment retired of concern due to the fact that it didn't get done connected time," Rudolph said.