City staff responded Wednesday to concerns about 125 mineral claims, some which are staked along a popular ski trail.

At a noon meeting, city staff reviewed this recent claim staking, and compared it with the big picture of claims staked within the city of Whitehorse. From there, city staff can decide what options are available in handling these concerns.

"We can control the activities, but the city can't prevent people from staking claims," said city manager Dennis Shewfelt.

Until claims are staked, the city usually doesn't know about the plans. Its only power is to regulate the activities that take place on the site, through zoning, the Official Community Plan (OCP), and permits.

At this point, 85 of 125 Juice claims, owned by Iain Gibson, have not been registered yet at the Yukon Mining Recorder's office. It is those 85 claims with which a local ski club is concerned.

Shewfelt and city councillors pointed out there may be nothing to worry about. There are likely thousands of claims staked within city limits that sit stagnant, unused and undeveloped, said Shewfelt.

The chances of these stakes turning into a development that would affect cross-country skiers are rare, said Shewfelt.

Representatives from the Whitehorse Cross Country Ski Club sat in on the council meeting . Several of the 85 claims staked last October sit along the club's trail system, and members have raised concerns about the future use of the trails.

The unregistered claims are west of the Granger and Copper Ridge subdivisions, running north of the city landfill to just south of McRae. The other 40 claims were registered in 2006 in the McIntyre area.

The ski trails are licensed to the Club from the Yukon government, although the licence does not ban mine staking, nor work that goes on underground.

The only hope the ski club would have of cancelling the staked claims would be if another company has already staked claims in the area, nullifying the new claims.

Coun. Florence Roberts pointed out that for an annual fee of $100 per claim, the ski society could have staked claims along its trails to prevent anyone else from doing the same. The presence of ski trails would not be a valid reason for the Mining Recorder's office to deny the claim.

Staff at that office said the unregistered 85 claims will likely be registered soon, and are probably just waiting for administrative paperwork to pass.

If Gibson wants to do any further invasive exploration work on the site, city and territorial permits would be required. This is a lengthy process in which the city would certainly raise residents' concerns, Shewfelt said.

The areas staked are currently designated as outdoor recreation area in the OCP, and zoned parks and recreation. For any extraction work to be done, Shewfelt said, the area would need to be re-zoned Quarries or Heavy Industrial, depending on the work.

Any re-zoning goes through a bylaw process before city council.

"It is an extensive process before they could start extraction," said Shewfelt.

Mapping shows the entire Copper Belt area is rated as having a high potential for minerals, which is why stakes are claimed.

Other than historical and geographical indicators of what lies beneath the surface, no one knows for sure until exploration occurs, said Shewfelt.

"All of Copper Ridge, Granger, Arkell, all of that was under-staked claims at one point or another," he said.

The concern before council now is that of residents who do not want to see mining operations in their backyards.

"People are afraid someone's going to come in and set up a big operation in the middle of a residential area," said Mayor Bev Buckway.

"We have enough protections in place...I'm not worried," said Roberts.

"I think there's more at stake than we might realize," said Buckway.

"I don't want to have it banned from city limits," said Coun. Dave Austin. He was referring to the idea of putting a moratorium on all mining claims staked in the city for a future time period.

"It may be a prudent step to prevent claims from being developed in residential areas,' said Shewfelt.

The city manager is to meet with staff at the Mine Recorder's office next week to see what steps city administration can take with these 85 claims. He said he would bring council's and the ski club's concerns with him.

Gibson could not be reached for comment on his future plans for his staked claims, once registered.