Mineral Titles News, Notices and Announcements - Archive

Archived news and announcements from the Mineral Titles office.

June 11, 2024 – Mineral Titles Branch (Vancouver) Office Closure

The Vancouver office of the Mineral Titles Branch will be closed from June 17, 2024 until June 21, 2024.

There will be no staff on site to provide support in-person or via phone call and email during this time.

The office will reopen on June 24, 2024, at 8:30am.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

June 3, 2024 - Mineral Titles Online Maintenance

Mineral Titles Online will be unavailable on June 5th, 2024, from 11:30 am to 2:30 pm for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

November 30, 2023 - Regional mines public engagement portal

The ministry is introducing the Regional Mines Public Engagement Portal, which will provide a platform for sharing information and receiving feedback regarding Mines Act applications for regional mines and exploration activities.

The portal allows users to view Regional mine permit applications and determine which ones are open for public comment. The statutory decision maker retains the authority to determine which applications will be open for public comment, depending on the nature and complexity of the application. 

The portal will improve public access to application information and will provide system links to other ministry databases. The platform includes an interactive map with user-friendly features, and it will support the submission of email comments directly to the appropriate regional mines office.

The portal was published on November 27, 2023 at the following location: www.gov.bc.ca/minesengagement

Any questions about the mines public engagement can be sent to any regional office.

May 24, 2023 - Mineral Titles Branch, Vancouver Office

The Vancouver office of the Mineral Titles Branch will be closing to walk-in traffic on Fridays. Closures start on May 26, 2023 and will continue until further notice.

We will continue to provide phone and email support Monday - Friday between the hours of 8:30 am - 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm.

Contact us at:

email: mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca

Voice-mail: 1-866-616-4999

We encourage you to take advantage of self-serve resources in the MTO Help documents.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

August 9, 2023 - website update: Recreational hand panning page

An updated Recreational hand panning page has been posted. The updated page combines information from Information Update No. 2 - Recreational Hand Panning for Placer Minerals (PDF, 46.3KB) and offers an interactive map of the panning reserves. 

June 20, 2023 - Temporary Moratorium on New Claim Registration in the Southern Incomappleux Area 

On June 19, 2023, the Province approved a temporary moratorium on the registration of new mineral claims in the Southern Incomappleux area through an Environment and Land Use Act order for a period of two years, with the possibility of extension.

The two-year moratorium on the registration of new mineral claims will provide an opportunity for further engagement regarding the future stewardship of the area.

This moratorium does not impact current mineral tenure holders in the area from carrying out work or continuing to develop their tenures.

For further information regarding the Incomappleux Valley, please see the January 2023 press release.

If there are any questions, please reach out to Kathie Wagar, Regional Director (kathie.wagar@gov.bc.ca

June 20, 2023 - Only one login session per client number in effect as of June 22, 2023

As of Jun 22^nd, 2023, MTO will only support one login per client number. Attempting to login to additional sessions using the same client number will result in the original session being logged out. This is to increase the fairness of claim acquisition within the province of BC.

September 22, 2023 - Yale Panning Reserve Closed Until Further Notice

In consultation with the Fraser Health Authority, signs have been installed at the Yale Recreational Panning Reserve stating that the subject area is closed until further notice.  The Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has received a report from a member of the public who suspects they may have found mercury while hand panning at the site.  Fraser Health in collaboration with other relevant agencies continue to review this matter.

Mercury is a heavy metal that may be present in the environment. Though levels of heavy metals in the environment are generally low in British Columbia, even small exposures can result in negative health effects. For more information about the hazards of mercury exposure please see the BC Centre for Disease Control site:

http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/prevention-public-health/lead-mercury

May 9, 2024 - Mineral Titles Online Maintenance

Mineral Titles Online will be down on May 9th, 2024, from 12:00 pm to 1:00 pm for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

April 08, 2024 – MTO Payment Screen Redirecting to Invalid Domain Site

When attempting to make a payment in MTO users are redirected to a page that indicates the domain name for the payment service has expired. The payment company has been alerted and is working to resolve it as soon as possible. It appears that the payments are being processed, please do not try to register a payment a second time as this may result in redundant charges. If you notice additional charges on your statement please contact the Mineral Titles Branch and we will work to rectify these errors as soon as we are able to do so.

April 23, 2024 - Planned service interruption, BCGW, April 28, 2024

The BC Geographic Warehouse (BCGW) will not be available on April 28th starting at 6 AM.

This affects all government mapping applications such as MTO, ILRR, iMapBC and the spatial data downloading service. 

February 21, 2024 – Next Cell Release Scheduled for March 6, 2024 at 1 PM PST

The next cell release has been scheduled for Wednesday, March 6, 2024 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; or
• A cell being made available due to a previous incorrect status.

Please note that these lists of cell key ID’s are subject to change.

Mineral Cell Key ID’s

Placer Cell Key ID’s

February 21, 2024 - Mineral Titles Online Scheduled Maintenance

Mineral Titles Online will be down on February 29th, 2023, from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

January 30, 2024 - Mineral Titles Branch Office Closure

Please note the Mineral Titles Branch will be closed during the week of February 5-10, 2024, for staff training and development. During this time email and voicemail will not be monitored. Inquiries will be responded to when the branch reopens on February 12, 2024. Mail will not be collected during this time. Please submit any requests that are time sensitive (eg. may result in claim forfeiture) on or before 12 noon on February 2^nd and include ‘TIME SENSITIVE’ in the subject line.

January 12, 2024 – BC Applications Outage

Starting at 12:00 am Sunday, January 21, 2024, BC Government applications related to the Natural Resource Sectors will be unavailable for scheduled maintenance until 5:00 am Sunday, January 21, 2024. During this time users may not be able to access Mineral Titles Online.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

January 11, 2024 - BCeID Outage

Starting at 6:00 am on Sunday January 14th, 2024, BCeID services will be down for maintenance. The expected outage is expected to last until 12:00 pm on January 14th, 2024. During this time users will not be able to login to MTO or government web services that require a BCeID to login.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

December 11, 2023 – New Titles Not Appearing and Forfeited Titles Not Being Removed from Map Viewers

Mineral Titles Online is currently experiencing a problem where it is not updating a cell’s status when a claim is forfeited, acquired, or otherwise changed.

A mapping function within Mineral Titles Online (MTO) that removes forfeited titles and adds newly issued titles on the map viewers is not currently running.

The cells related to titles that forfeited on December 8, 9, and 10 did not become available as normal.  These cells will be held back for the next cell release tentatively scheduled for February 2024.

Be aware that if you attempt to acquire what appears to be open ground but get an error message indicating that the cells are unavailable due to a title, a title may already exist but is currently not visible in the map viewer.

We are aware of this problem and are actively working to fix it. While the problem persists the Mineral Titles Branch will be holding any cells that forfeit for the next cell release.

We Apologize for the inconvenience.

November 16, 2023 - Mineral Titles Branch, Vancouver Office Closed

The Vancouver office of the Mineral Titles Branch will be closed on Wednesday November 22, 2023 for staff training. The office will reopen at 8:30am on Thursday November 23, 2023.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

October 13, 2023 – Next Cell Release Scheduled for October 26, 2023 at 1 PM PDT

The next cell release has been scheduled for Thursday, October 26, 2023 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; or
• A cell being made available due to a previous incorrect status.

Please note that these lists of cell key ID’s are subject to change.

Mineral Cell Key ID’s

Placer Cell Key ID’s

Oct 10, 2023 - MTO Down for Maintenance

Mineral Titles Online will be down on October 10, 2023, from 11:30am to 1:00pm for maintenance. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

September 19, 2023 - Yale Panning Reserve Closed Until Further Notice

Under the authority of the Fraser Health Authority, signs have been installed at the Yale Recreational Panning Reserve,  stating that the subject site and areas both upstream and downstream are closed until further notice. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has received a report from a member of the public who suspects they may have found mercury while hand panning at the site. Fraser Health Authority and the Fraser Valley Regional District has been notified and are acting on this matter.

Mercury is a heavy metal that may be present in the environment. Though levels of heavy metals in the environment are generally low in British Columbia, even small exposures can result in negative health effects. For more information about the hazards of mercury exposure please see the BC Centre for Disease Control site:

http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/prevention-public-health/lead-mercury

September 8, 2023 - Yale Panning Reserved Closed Until Further Notice

The Yale Recreational Panning Reserve is closed for recreational hand panning until further notice. Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy has received a report from a member of the public who suspects they may have found mercury while hand panning at the site. Fraser Health Authority has been notified.

Mercury is a heavy metal that may be present in the environment. Though levels of heavy metals in the environment are generally low in British Columbia, even small exposures can result in negative health effects. For more information about the hazards of mercury exposure please see the BC Centre for Disease Control site:

http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/prevention-public-health/lead-mercury

Aug 02, 2023 - Scheduled Maintenance for Aug 03, 2023 at 2:30 pm PDT

MTO will be down for scheduled maintenance from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm on Aug 03^rd. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

June 20, 2023 - Temporary Moratorium on New Claim Registration in the Southern Incomappleux Area 

On June 19, 2023, the Province approved a temporary moratorium on the registration of new mineral claims in the Southern Incomappleux area through an Environment and Land Use Act order for a period of two years, with the possibility of extension.

The two-year moratorium on the registration of new mineral claims will provide an opportunity for further engagement regarding the future stewardship of the area.

This moratorium does not impact current mineral tenure holders in the area from carrying out work or continuing to develop their tenures.

For further information regarding the Incomappleux Valley, please see the January 2023 press release.

If there are any questions, please reach out to Kathie Wagar, Regional Director (kathie.wagar@gov.bc.ca)

June 20, 2023 - Scheduled Maintenance for June 22, 2023 at 9:00 am PDT

MTO will be down for scheduled maintenance from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm on June 22^nd. Sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.

May 24, 2023 - Mineral Titles Branch, Vancouver Office

The Vancouver office of the Mineral Titles Branch will be closing to walk-in traffic on Fridays. Closures start on May 26, 2023 and will continue through to June 30, 2023. The Friday closures are subject to change.

We will continue to provide phone and email support Monday - Friday between the hours of 8:30 am - 12:00 noon and 1:00 pm - 4:30 pm.

Contact us at:

email: mineral.titles@gov.bc.ca

Voice-mail: 1-866-616-4999

We encourage you to take advantage of self-serve resources in the MTO Help documents.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

April 28, 2023 – Planned service interruption – May 1 @ 2:30 PM

MTO will be taken offline at approximately 2:30pm on May 1, 2023. The outage is expected for approximately 15 minutes.

April 6, 2023 – Update – Mineral Titles Online (MTO)

If you are attempting to access the MTO application and are receiving a HTTP 404 error, in addition to clearing your browsers cache of temporary files and cookies, please update any favorites or bookmarks that you may have saved. 

The URL is www.mtonline.gov.bc.ca

If you are using a web search to get to the MTO application, and get the HTTP 404 error, look in the URL bar.  You may see www.mtonline.gov.bc.ca/mtov/home.do.   Remove the “.do” from the end and hit enter.

April 5, 2023 – Mineral Titles Online (MTO) Available

MTO is once again available.  Please note that you may need to clear your internet browser’s cache in order to reach the MTO website.  Thank you for your patience.

March 30, 2023 - Planned service interruption – April 5th @ 11:30am

MTO will be taken offline at approximately 11:30am on April 5th, 2023 to deploy MTO 4.0.0 into production.  The outage is expected for approximately 3 hours.

February 15, 2023 - Planned service interruption – February 16, 2023 @ 11:30am

MTO will be taken offline at approximately 11:30am on February 16, 2023.  The outage is expected for approximately 2 hours.

January 30, 2023 - Cell Release Scheduled - February 22, 2023 at 1 pm PST

The next cell release has been scheduled for Wednesday, February 22, 2023 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; or
• A cell being made available due to a previous incorrect status.

Please note that these lists of cell key ID’s are subject to change.

Mineral cell key ID's (1.1 MB)

Placer cell key ID's (173.3 KB) 

January 30, 2023 - Office closure February 6–8, 2023

The Mineral Titles Branch Vancouver office will be closed from February 6^th to 8^th for staff meetings and training. We will continue to provide phone and email support. 

We apologize for any inconvenience. 

We encourage you to take advantage of self-serve resources in the MTO Help documents: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/mineral-exploration-mining/mineral-titles/mto-help-guide 

October 19, 2022 - MTO is back online

MTO is back online (10:35am). Thanks for your patience while IT staff resolved the issue.

October 19, 2022 - MTO is currently offline

MTO is currently offline, our IT folks are working to resolve the issue. There is no ETA at this time.

October 18, 2022 - IM/IT Planned outage - October 29-30, 2022

UPDATED, October 19, 2022 - the dates moved from Oct 22-23, 2022 to Oct 29-30, 2022

Please be advised that many government services, including Mineral Titles Online (MTO), will be taken offline this weekend for a planned and mandatory upgrade. 

The outage is scheduled for Saturday, October 29 6:00 AM to Sunday, October 30 8:00 PM. Service may be up sooner than the outage window.

If you have a claim coming due this weekend, please ensure you apply claim maintenance to keep your title in good standing.

MTO step-by-step instructions

• SOW: Exploration and Development Work/Expiry date change
• CIL: Payment Instead of Exploration and Development Work

Oct 17, 2022 - Planned service interruption - Oct 17, 2022 @ 1:30pm

MTO will be taken offline at approximately 1:30pm on Oct 17, 2022.  The outage is expected for approximately 1 hour.

October 17, 2022 - Cell release update (Placer)

The following cells have been added to the placer list of cells to be released on Thursday October 20, 2022 at 1pm PDT.

Placer cell key ID's (revised) [PDF, 270KB]

October 11, 2022 - Next cell release scheduled for October 20, 2022 at 1pm PDT

The next cell release has been scheduled for Thursday, October 20, 2022 at 1pm PDT.

Below are links to two lists of cells that will be released – one list contains placer cells, and one list contains mineral cells.  The cells contained on these lists are 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 title was abandoned by the recorded holder
• A recorded holder has removed cells from a title by requesting a reduction

Mineral cell key ID's [PDF, 4MB]

Placer cell key ID's [PDF, 222KB]

August 23, 2022 - Assessment Report Indexing System (ARIS) - New search portal launched

The Assessment Report Indexing System (ARIS) public search page has been updated to include new features and improve stability.  We recommend updating bookmarks to the new site https://apps.nrs.gov.bc.ca/pub/aris

July 28, 2022 - Update: Information Update #20 - Claim Maintenance - Portable Assessment Credit (PAC)

Information Update #20 has been updated, please take the time to review the document.

July 27, 2022 -  Assessment Report Indexing System (ARIS) update

Please be advised that the Assessment Report Indexing System (ARIS) public search page (https://aris.empr.gov.bc.ca/) is being updated to include new features and improve stability.

The page will be moving mid-August 2022.

There will be an automatic re-direct to the new webpage, however it is recommended that you update any bookmarks to the new webpage after the update.

July 12, 2022 – Next cell release postponed

Please be advised that the next scheduled cell release which was estimated for late July 2022 has been postponed. 

Continue to watch this News, Notices and Announcements page for a future notice as to when the next cell release will take place.

June 29, 2022 - Planning underway for next cell release

Please be advised that work is underway for the next scheduled cell release which we estimate will occur within late July 2022.

Mineral Titles is reviewing a list of mineral and placer cells that may be released.

Please watch News, Notices and Announcements for a future notice with the list of cells, release date(s) and time(s) to be posted by mid-July 2022.

June 29, 2022 - Logoff of Mineral Titles Online error

Some government applications (MTO, NROS, vFCBC) are returning an error message when users click the logoff or exit this service button. Applications will need to update their parameters to avoid this error. There is no impact to the end user.  There is no ETA at this time for when MTO will have the fix applied to the production environment. 

May 17, 2022 - Planned Service Interruption, June 12th 5am-10am - MTO offline

Please be advised that many government applications will be unavailable on Sunday, June 12th from approximately 5am-10am. This planned service interruption affects MTO, ILRR and Natural Resources Online services, to name a few.

May 17, 2022 - BCGW Planned Service Interruption, May 29, 2022 6am - 10am

Please be advised that the BC Geographic Warehouse (BCGW) will be undergoing regular maintenance on Sunday, May 29, 2022 from 6am - 10am.  There may be temporary service interruptions during this time.  This will affect the display of all layers in MTO CWM except the Mineral/Placer/Coal Titles (MTO) folder. Download of spatial data via the Data Catalogue may also be unavailable during this time.

April 27, 2022 - MTO Planned Service Interruption - April 28, 2022

MTO will be offline April 28,2022 starting at 2:30pm. The planned outage should last approximately 1 hour.

April 21, 2022 - Title Overlap Report (TOR) - regenerated for period April 4 - 14,2022

Title Overlap Reports will be regenerated for the April 4 - 14, 2022 timeframe.  The TOR service was offline during this time period and TORs will be run today.  Clients should expect emails in their inbox for any newly acquired title or TOR request (TORR) during the time frame.

April 20, 2022 - Portable Assessment Credit (PAC) FAQ updated

The frequently asked questions for PAC have been updated and posted to the branch website.

Reminder: Effective May 1, 2022, the transfer of PAC credits between accounts will no longer be allowed.

April 7, 2022 - Title Overlap Reports (TOR) not being generated

Please be advised that TOR reports are not being generated for newly acquired title or TOR requests. Once the service is corrected, all TORs will be regenerated for the time period the service was offline. A follow-up notice will be posted once the service is back online.

April 5, 2022 – Portable Assessment Credit (PAC) Transfers – Effective May 1, 2022

Effective May 1, 2022, the transfer of PAC credits between accounts will no longer be allowed.

Section 9 of the Mineral Tenure Act Regulation sets out who can earn portable assessment credit (PAC), how credit can be applied to a PAC account and how PAC credits can be used to satisfy exploration and development on a claim.

Currently, the Mineral Titles Branch has been allowing the practice of transferring credits between PAC accounts.  However, section 9 of the Regulation does not provide authorization for the transfer of credits between accounts to occur.

If your current business practice has been to hold PAC credits on behalf of other free miners or account holders, you may wish to review your account holdings and request the necessary adjustments prior to May 1, 2022.

March 21, 2022 - MTO Planned Service Interruption, March 24, 2022

March 16, 2022 - Cell Release planned for March 29-30, 2022

A review of all the MTO grid cells in the province has been completed.  The next cell release will occur over two days, March 29 and 30, 2022. Each release will occur at 1pm Daylight Savings Time (DST). 

March 29, 2022 – Map blocks 082, 083, and 092

March 30, 2022 – Map blocks 093, 094, 103, 104, and 114

January 21, 2022 - Cell(s) Not Releasing as per Release Schedule

We are aware that some cells are not being released according to the release schedule as expected. We are reviewing these cells. Upon completion of the current release schedule, we will be setting up another release date for these remaining cells. Please watch for a future notice for more details about their release.

January 26, 2022 - Cell release planned today for 0800AM will be available at 0900AM PST

At 0900AM PST Mineral Titles Online will be restarted. You will need to log back into MTO after the restart.   Once you log in, the cells planned for release at 0800AM will be available.

January 26, 2022 -  8:00 AM Cell release postponed

Due to time constraints, the planned scheduled release for 8:00AM today is delayed. We will post a notice as soon as the release is ready.

January 25, 2022 -  Re-Schedule of Cell Release for Map Blocks 092 and 093

The previously scheduled cell release of cells related to map blocks 092 and 093 has been re-scheduled.

Titles that were acquired over cells related to the January 24, 2022 11:00 am cell release will be cancelled and the acquisition fees will be refunded.

January 25, 2022 -  MTO restart at 10:30h PST, cell acquisition disabled

At 1030h PST  Mineral Titles Online will be restarted. If you are logged in during that time, you will be automatically logged out of the system.  

Please be aware that claim acquisition will be temporarily disabled until a new schedule for cell release is developed.

January 24, 2022 - Cell Release of Monday, January 24, 2022 and Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Due to unprecedented demand related to the cell release this morning, Monday, January 24, 2022, the mapping server used by the Mineral Titles Online application for claim acquisition was not able to handle the volume of mapping demands.  As such, many users found the map was either very slow to load or would not load at all.

To ensure free miners have a fair ability to acquire cells, it has been decided that the cell release of today, Monday, January 24, 2022 and for Tuesday, January 25, 2022 is hereby cancelled and will be rescheduled.

Titles that were acquired today over cells related to today’s cell release will be cancelled and the acquisition fees will be refunded.

January 12, 2022 (3:34pm) - MTO Online

Please be advised that Mineral Titles Online is now back online and available.

Clients with claims with good to dates of January 12, 2022 have had a time extension applied to their title. 

January 12, 2022 - MTO taken offline temporarily

A number of cells related to legacy claims became available and were acquired. These claims forfeited as a result of the end of the COVID-19 time extension order.

The cells were intended to be released as per the revised schedule posted online.

As the cells were never intended to be released prior to the schedule and to ensure all free miners are given a fair opportunity to register claims, all related claims that were acquired starting on January 11, 2022 are being deleted from the registry as per section 6.36 of the Mineral Tenure Act.

Refunds of claim registration fees related to these claim registrations will be issued.

MTO access will be temporarily disabled today until the issue is resolved. We will notify you when MTO is available.

January 10, 2022 - MTO Availability and Emails to recorded holders

The plan is for MTO to be online and available to the public on Tuesday, January 11, 2022 at 1400h PST.

The following letter has been emailed out to recorded holders.

January 7, 2022 - Mineral Titles Online Status Update

On December 31, 2021, in order to terminate the effect of the COVID-19 order, it was necessary to update the MTO database, which involved taking MTO offline and updating the registry.

The planned update to the MTO registry resulted in a number of failures and created errors in the MTO production database and caused the forfeiture of a number of claims that were not intended to forfeit. In turn, a number of new claims were immediately registered after midnight on January 1^st, 2022.   MTO was turned off at 1200h on January 1st, 2022.

We had previously communicated in a notice posted on the Mineral Titles Branch website on December 6, 2021 that cells related to the end of the COVID-19 time extension order were to be released in a schedule between January 4, 2022 to January 10, 2022. Instead, these cells became available at midnight on December 31, 2021.

Following is a list of steps we have taken to resolve these issues:

1. The previous cell availability schedule (Jan 4^th - 10^th) for cell release related to the end of the COVID-19 time extension has been cancelled. A new cell acquisition schedule has been developed as follows:

2. Cells subject to non-COVID-19 time extension orders should not have been released.  Cells subject to the COVID-19 time extension order should only have been released according to the posted schedule. For these reasons all claims registered on January 1, 2022 have been deleted from the registry. Refunds for claim registration fees will be provided.

3. Titles with time extensions beyond December 31, 2021 were reinstated. The time extension events were reapplied as they previously existed.

4. Titles with good to dates between January 1, 2022 and January 11, 2022 have been reinstated and granted a short time extension for recorded holders to register work or pay cash in lieu, as recorded holders could not access MTO during this time.

5. A few recorded holders who tried to register work or make payment on their claims have reported they were not able to do so between 1600h and midnight on December 31, 2021. Their claims have been reinstated with a short time extension applied to allow for the registrations to be completed.  

These steps will be completed by Monday, January 10, 2022.

The plan is for MTO to be online and available to the public on Tuesday January 11^th 2022.

January 4, 2022 - Mineral Titles Online

MTO remains offline until further notice. The planned release of cells by NTS mapsheet has been cancelled. A new schedule for cell release will be posted here when it is available.

January 1, 2022 – Mineral Titles Online Outage / End of Time Extension

At approximately 11:45 am, Mineral Titles Online was taken offline. It will remain offline for the next two days while we resolve the following:

This morning, mineral titles automatically forfeited on December 31, 2021. These titles had time extension orders applied which meant they should not have forfeited. In some cases, the cells within these forfeited claims became available and were reacquired. The cells should not have become available for acquisition. MTO will remain offline while these errors are corrected. 

Further updates will be posted as they become available.

December 14, 2020 - Mineral Titles Branch office is open

The Mineral Titles Branch Vancouver office is open to in-person service with the following changes:

Do not come to the office if you have:

• Symptoms of COVID-19 including cough, shortness of breath or fever
• A sick family member or have been around someone who is sick
• Not completed required self-isolation

There are new requirements at the office to limit the ongoing spread of COVID-19 to protect the health and well-being of our employees, recorded holders and the public. Some of these changes include:

• Maximum of 2 persons in the public area.  There is additional waiting space in the hallway.
• Sanitizer available for use
• A plexiglass barrier at the front desk
• The public washrooms are closed
• Masks must be worn
• Computer access terminals are not available for public use

We encourage you to take advantage of self-serve resources on our application website.  

We continue to provide assistance by:

           Email: Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca
           Voice-Mail: 1-866-616-4999 (must leave a message)

June 11, 2020 – Guidance for Mining and Exploration Camps

By order of the PHO, operators in the natural resource sector that provide accommodation at their industrial camps must develop a COVID-19 Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Protocol.

• Notice to Regional Mining and Mineral Exploration Operators During the COVID-19 -  June 11, 2020

March 27, 2020 – Time Extension Order on Claims, Licences and Leases

As the Ministry continues to respond and adapt to the directions and orders issued in response to COVID-19, the Chief Gold Commissioner has issued a blanket Time Extension Order for all claims and leases, as well as all coal licenses and leases. This Order gives more time for recorded holders to register work, make cash in lieu of work payments and make rental payments.

For more information, an Information Sheet is available. If you have any further questions, please visit the Mineral Titles Online Registry system or email Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca.

Claims

• The time to make cash in lieu or register work on claims that have expiry dates before December 31, 2021 is extended to December 31, 2021. Claims with expiry dates past this date are not subject to this Order

Mining and Placer Leases

• The time to register the annual rental payment, which is normally on the anniversary date, is extended to December 31, 2021

Coal Leases and Licenses

• The time to register the annual rental payment, which is normally on the anniversary date, is extended to December 31, 2021

Visit the Mineral Titles Online Registry system or email Mineral.Titles@gov.bc.ca for more information.