Marathon Mayor Rick Dumas says his council's support behind a regional movement to slow down the government's timetable for making changes to the Mining Act will go unheeded by Queen's Park.
Marathon supported a letter by Atikokan Mayor Dennis Brown asking Northern Development and Mines Minister Michael Gravelle for public consultation meetings prior to the McGuinty government introducing new legislation to modernize the 100-year-old act this fall.
But Gravelle told northern mayors in Thunder Bay recently that the timetable was adequate and urged stakeholders to send their written submissions into the ministry.
"They believe it was in the best interests of the Mining Act to move it forward and get it passed into legislation," says Dumas.
Dumas says of the exploration companies he has spoken with, many are fine with the progress being made but want a "one-stop shop" in dealing with all applications and government approvals to move projects forward in a timely fashion. Local prospectors in the community also say they don't want on-line claim staking
The northwest shore of Lake Superior near Marathon is hot property for base metals with Metalcorp drilling and recovering good showings of platinum, palladium, copper and gold. Another junior, Marathon PGM, is steadily advancing toward an open pit base metal mine.
The ripple effect has spread into town with Metalcorp, Marathon PGM and Benton Resources buying homes for their field crews and hiring locals.
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