The moratorium on staking mineral claims inside the Peel River watershed has been extended to Jan. 21.

Environment Minister Currie Dixon said Monday the Yukon government and four affected First Nations are on the cusp of concluding a final land use plan for the Peel watershed but just need another three weeks.

"We are almost there, we are very close,” Dixon said following Monday's announcement of an extension.

"But we felt we needed an additional three weeks, and we feel we can conclude that process by that time.”

The moratorium was scheduled to end Dec. 31. It was first implemented in February 2010 for one year, and has been extended several times since.

The committee of senior representatives from all the parties have been meeting.

Most recently, Dixon, Premier Darrell Pasloski and Energy, Mines and Resources Minister Scott Kent have been meeting with the First Nation leaders, he said.

Dixon said they're hoping to have a land use plan in place before the moratorium comes off.

The moratorium was put in place as a means of preventing any further mineral staking that could affect future land use designations.

Also instituted was a moratorium on the collection of annual fees required to keep mineral claims in good standing.

There are more than 8,000 registered quartz claims in the Peel watershed.

The Peel planning process has been extremely adversarial.

The First Nations are pushing for maximum wilderness protection of the area, along with many Yukoners and others around the world.

Pasloski, on the other hand, insists there must be a fair balance between environmental protection and opportunities for economic development.

The issue has prompted several public demonstrations in support of maximum protection.

Even industry left its usual seat behind the scenes at one time and organized a letter-writing campaign, just like the one organized by the one of the environmental protection groups.

On Monday, the government also announced a new moratorium on staking mineral claims inside the traditional territory of the Ross River Dena Council, for legal reasons (see separate story).

The Ross River area is 63,000 square kilometres, or a shade smaller than the 68,042 square kilometres that make up the Peel.

Taken together, there is now a moratorium on mineral staking in 25 per cent of the Yukon.