Grid-Lock And Splintered-Cells: The Modernized Ontario Mining Act And Encumbered Claims

On Tuesday April 10, 2018, the Ontario mining community woke up to a new reality as the third phase of the Ontario government's Modernizing the Mining Act process was put into effect.  Following the lengthy hiatus period that began January 9, 2018, (when claim staking, transferring, surrendering, and encumbering was suspended) the process of conversion to an online registration system for mining claims based on a latitudinal and longitudinal grid, rather than a ground or paper map staking system, was completed. The Ontario Mineral Tenure Grid now splits the province up into more than 5.2 million cells on a latitude and longitude grid, ranging in size, according to the Ministry of Northern Development and Mining, from 17.7 ha in the north to 24 ha in the south.  All of the mining claims in Ontario, which existed prior to the modernization (legacy claims in the new parlance), have been converted to what are now known as cell claims or boundary claims.  A cell claim is a