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BCPMA – “President’s Message”

Welcome to the BC Placer Miners Association Web Site. Our objective is to represent collectively the voices of the Placer Miners to the Government, and deal with the continual issues on your behalf.

We encourage all miners, large operations, Mom & Pop Operations, small scale and dredgers, or those who simply enjoy a pan and a shovel to join us, and utilize this website as your information highway on your gold trail. We encourage you to become involved with the mining association in your area so you can become part of this process.

Wanting every miner/prospector to succeed, we are as a provincial group working for those individuals within our membership to be able to avoid being buried in bureaucracy and we work towards bringing about transparency so no Place Miner ever is at risk of undue penalty.
The BCPMA consists of representatives of the various Placer Mining Associations throughout British Columbia. Each Mining District has a delegate chosen to sit on the Executive Board. There are no individual memberships thus individuals are advised to locate a group in their area to join. Clubs which are not members should contact the BCPMA so their concerns can be heard. We encourage this whole heartedly.

Issues at a local level are best handled by the local group. BCPMA supports as required the Placer Mining regulations and titles as they have journeyed through many changes in the last few years with the government on both a provincial and federal level. Mineral Titles On Line is one of the latest change and has been a huge challenge put forth as a encumbrance and a learning curve to all individuals and groups. Challenges continue and individuals are becoming comfortable and recognize some of the benefits it provides.

BCPMA has kept awareness, concerning GPS Accuracy; BCPMA is still involved to establish bonding and permit guidelines to be consistent across the province.
As President, I would like to state that many people I have met over the last 15 years have amazed me with their depth of character and optimistic look at life. Some have been eccentric or a little off the wall, but all are good solid people with a passion for what they are doing.
Prospecting tends to attract the Individualist who just wants to do what needs to be done, unfortunately they are the ones where changes sneak up on and often it is those who get blind-sided by the policy makers.

Our purpose at BCPMA remains to watch out for the changes and deal with them before it is too late. It is without doubt many people would rather poke a stick in their eye than sit through a club meeting, but we need to find out what problems need to be addressed. We want and welcome everyone to share your issues so they will get addressed
Presently we are challenged with the recent enactment of changes to the Mineral Tenure Act; in particular section 19 (1) requiring written notification to the private landowners for any mining access, including walking across while prospecting.

The Act was proclaimed in the spring of 2007; and the regulations will be in place for the next mining season. At this time, the BCPMA and all mining associations have found this to be an unworkable piece of legislation; to which no prospector could adhere to. The BCPMA have actively been in contact with the government; however at present the political will is to go forward.
We encourage you to support your local club, so we can continue to do our utmost in keeping awareness, information, and follow due process on each miner's concern.


Bruce Chaytor