Amendments To The Mining Act (Québec)

On October 30, 2013, Bill 43, which proposed a complete reform of the Mining Act, was defeated when put to a vote at the Québec National Assembly. On December 5, 2013, the Québec Minister of Natural Resources (the "Minister") tabled Bill 70, an Act to Amend the Mining Act (the "Act"), which represented a more conciliatory mining reform project than Bill 43. After being fast-tracked, the Act was adopted on December 10.

The Act makes a number of changes to the Québec mining regime, namely, with respect to increasing the responsibility of mining lease holders, the transparency of mining project approval mechanisms and the power of provincial and local authorities to monitor mining activities.