Before Darrell Carey proceeds with any work on his placer claims in Dawson City, he’ll need a development permit from the town, says Dawson Mayor Wayne Potoroka.

Potoroka said in an interview this morning town staff will be contacting Carey to make sure he’s aware he needs a permit before doing any work.

“Anytime anybody does anything in our community, that is a requirement,” the mayor said of Carey’s obligation to obtain a development permit.

Potoroka took exception to Carey running a newspaper ad last week and posting a sign at his claims next to the Dome Road indicating he intends to begin conducting exploration work on the claims this winter.

When you have a problem with your neighbour, the mayor said, you talk to your neighbour.

Posting a public notice of what you intend to do, he suggested, is not the neighbourly thing to do.

“It has a lot of people worked up here, for sure,” Potoroka said. “Nothing replaces good dialogue and understanding.”

Carey has a legally registered block of 34 placer claims between the Dome Road subdivision and the Klondike River.

Carey’s proposal to mine those claims was rejected by the Yukon Environmental and Socio-economic Assessment Board late last year. The territorial government accepted the assessment board’s recommendation to deny Carey a permit to mine the claims.

Randy Clarkson is a professional engineer who has acted as Carey’s agent on the matter.

He said last week Carey provided the public notice of his intentions as part of the requirement before conducting class one exploration activity in the Dawson area.

Conducting further exploration on his claims to gain a better understanding of the geology is the smart thing to do while his ability to mine the claims remains unresolved, Clarkson said.

Carey, said Clarkson, does believe he will be mining the claims eventually.

In order to settle a business dispute with his former partner in the claims, Carey bought out his partner last year in a court-approved process for $375,000 – cash.

Before expansion

Carey maintains his claims were there long before the cross country ski trails were built on top of them, and long before the town expanded its municipal boundaries over top of them.

His proposal to mine the claims was met by stiff opposition from the town, the Tr’ondek Hwëch’in, the local cross country ski club and Dawsonites in general.

The recommendation from the assessment board to deny the proposal said there were no means of mitigating the effects mining would have on the town’s ski trails. The Yukon government agreed.

But the government then hired a facilitator to see if some resolution could be found.

Clarkson’s understands the facilitator retained a cross country ski expert to assist. The report was filed with the government in July but is still not public.

Sue Thomas of the Department of Energy, Mines and Resources said Friday the department is waiting to receive feedback on the report from other government departments.

The mayor said the town recognizes Carey has rights attached to those mining claims.

It is a complicated matter, and they’ll be contacting the Yukon government to help sort it out, Potoroka said.

“Right now there does not appear to be a lot of activity to resolve these complicated issues,” he said.

Potoroka recalled that the last time the town and Carey were embroiled in a dispute over the right to mine claims on the other side of the Dome Road, the Slinky mining claims, the then-Yukon Party government stepped in to assist.

Road relocated

It paid in excess of a $1 million to relocate the road so Carey could mine the claims, and he was given three years to complete the mining.

The mayor said the government does have legislative ability to exercise some means of expropriating Carey’s claims.

Clarkson said Carey bought sole ownership of the claims so he could mine them, not to negotiate some deal with the government.

But if the government wants him out of there, it should put up the $750,000, and some for the aggravation Carey has had to go through, to buy him out, he said.

Carey, Clarkson insisted, does have a right to mine those claims, and he believes he can make money doing so.