The Mineral Lands Layers - in particular, the Map Staked Claims, Historical Claims, Mineral Rights Cancelled, Notices Gazetted and the Original Boundaries data sets - were developed by the Mineral Lands Division using the Province's Oracle based Mineral Rights Administration System - MIRIAD. Launched in February 2005, MIRIAD provided online map-based claim staking and updates, integrating mineral title information with the Province's geographic information system and financial management system. In April 2020, the updated Mineral Lands Administration Portal (MinLAP) came on line to provide clients with the ability to manage the claim staking, financial and reporting procedures themselves.

The Historical Claims data set includes ground and map-staked claims, impost lands such as fee simple mining grants and concession lands.  It was developed by the Mineral Lands Division over several years by manually digitizating older claims maps. With the introduction of MIRIAD, and now MinLAP, any Map Staked Claims which have reverted to the crown are automatically archived and incorporated into the Historical Claims data set.

The Mineral Tenure data set includes data from the Mineral Lands Division (exempt mineral lands, impost lands and mining leases) as well as other provincial and federal government departments (i.e., ecological reserves, national historic sites, national parks, private parks, provincial parks, wilderness reserves, federal lands, provincial lands, specified materials, Labrador Inuit Lands, and lands of  Quebec and France).  Many of these features are also on the Land Use Atlas (https://www.gov.nl.ca/landuseatlas/details/).

The purpose of the development of the Map Staked Claims, Mineral Rights Cancelled, Notices Gazetted, and the Original Boundaries data sets is to provide the mining industry with real time claims information 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These data sets, as well as the Mineral Tenure data set, provide the mining industry with maps of those lands which are available for claim staking and mineral exploration verses those areas which have been alienated from the claim staking and mineral exploration process.

The purpose of the development of the Historical Claims data set is to provide the mining industry the ability to research past claim staking and mineral exploration work on-line and to provide direct access to the digital mineral exploration work reports (assessment reports as pdf files), through the Geofiles link, that have been filed with the Publications Section, Geological Survey Division and the Mineral Lands Division.

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DESCRIPTION OF LAYERS

Map Staked Claims:
These claims have been staked via the Internet using MIRIAD and now MinLAP (Mineral Lands Administration Portal, as of April 2020). The Map Staked Claims layer is updated in real time.  Each claim measures 500 m x 500 m (25 hectares or about 61 acres) and is based on the predetermined Universal Transverse Mercator grid using the 1927 North American Datum (NAD27).

The black polygon boundaries on the Map Staked Claims layer are actually licence areas.  These consist of a minimum of one claim to a maximum of 256 contiguous claims.  Licence areas may not overlap existing claims or areas that are exempt from staking.  Each licence is assigned a unique number.  The attribute database (i.e., tabular data) associated with the Map Staked Claims layer consists of one row of data for each licence.  Table 1 provides a brief description of the fields available in the attribute database. This data is updated in real time.

Table 1: Fields in the Map Staked Claims database.

Original Boundaries:
Original boundaries refer to claim boundaries which have been established on the ground using ground staking or surveying methods. For the most part these Original Boundaries represent ground staked claim boundaries but also include boundaries of fee simple mining grants and concession lands. Section 25.2 of the Mineral Act provides details. This data is updated in real time.

Historical Claims:
Historical claims represent all ground and map staked claims, fee simple mining grants and concession lands that have been cancelled, surrendered, partially surrendered, expired or forfeited. Table 2 provides a brief description of the fields available in the database. This database is updated every evening.

Table 2. Fields in the Historical Claims database.

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Mineral Rights Cancelled:
Mineral rights (map staked claims, mining leases, fee simple mining grants and concession lands) which have reverted back to the Crown for non compliance with the Mineral Act and its associated Mineral Regulations and/or the Mineral Holdings Impost Act and its associated Mineral Holdings Impost Regulations. This includes cancelled, surrendered, partially surrendered and expired map staked claims and surrendered, partially surrendered, expired or forfeited (non payment of impost taxes) fee simple mining grants and concession lands. Table 3 provides a brief description of the fields available in the attribute database. This data is updated in real time.

Table 3: Fields in the Mineral Rights Cancelled database.

Notices Gazetted:
Mineral rights which have been cancelled, surrendered, partially surrendered, expired or forfeited that have had a notice published in the Newfoundland and Labrador Gazette as per Section 62 of the Mineral Regulations. Notices are published on Fridays and the mineral rights will become available for claim staking, through normal on-line claim staking procedures, at 9:00 in the morning of the thirty-second day after publication (always a Tuesday). Table 4 provides a brief description of the fields available in the attribute database. This data is updated in real time.

Table 4: Fields in the Notices Gazetted database.

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Mineral Tenure:
The Mineral Tenure data set includes mining leases (issued under the Mineral Act and also through private legislation) and impost lands (fee simple mining grants and concession lands). In addition, the data set includes ecological reserves, exempt mineral lands, national historic sites, national parks, private parks, provincial parks, wilderness reserves, and lands of Quebec and France wherein claim staking and mineral exploration is prohibited. The data set also includes federal and provincial lands where special permission must be obtained either from the Federal Government or the Provincial Government to claim stake and carry out mineral exploration. Finally, the data set includes specified materials and Labrador Inuit Lands where consent is required from the Nunatsiavut Government before mineral exploration can be conducted. Tables 5a and 5b provide a brief description of the fields available in the database and the type codes and descriptions. The legend for the Mineral Tenure layer on the Geoscience Resources Atlas (Figure 1) shows the land types included in the Mineral Tenure database.  The Mineral Tenure data set is updated periodically.

Table 5a. Fields in the Mineral Tenure database.

Table 5b. Mineral Tenure database Type Codes and Type Descriptions.

Figure 1. Legend for Mineral Tenure areas.

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DISCLAIMER

Digital data issued by the Mineral Lands Division of the Mining and Mineral Development Branch, Newfoundland and Labrador Government, are made available for public use. The user agrees not to provide a digital reproduction or copy of this product to a third party. Derivative products should acknowledge the source of the data.

Mineral Lands, a division of the Mining and Mineral Development Branch (the "authors and publishers"), retain the sole right to the original data and information found in any product produced. The authors and publishers assume no legal liability or responsibility for any alterations, changes or misrepresentations made by third parties with respect to these products or the original data. Furthermore, Mineral Lands assumes no liability with respect to digital reproductions or copies of original products or for derivative products made by third parties. Please consult with Mineral Lands in order to ensure originality and correctness of data and/or products.

RECOMMENDED CITATION
(for downloaded database: example is provided for Map Staked Claims)

Newfoundland and Labrador Mineral Lands Division. "Map Staked Claims".  Newfoundland and Labrador GeoScience Atlas OnLine. Last update: updated in real time. https://geoatlas.gov.nl.ca/ . [fill in date downloaded].

The 'Last Update' refers to the last time the database information was updated. Most of the Mineral Lands layers are updated in real time (see notes above).

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Mineral Lands Division
Mining and Mineral Lands Branch
Government of Newfoundland and Labrador
P.O. Box 8700
St. John's, NL A1B 4J6


Mineral Lands Administration (Claim Staking) Email: MinLapadmin@gov.nl.ca

Quarries Email: Quarries@gov.nl.ca

(Help file last updated: April 2022)

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