Tony applied to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation to take large mineral samples on behalf of his company. The ministry asked Tony to provide information not typically required for this type of project which meant he had to speculate on certain aspects of his project which he did not feel comfortable doing. After experiencing long delays, and concerned that his project was bring treated as a full-scale mining project and not just a sampling project, Tony contacted us.

The focus of our investigation was whether the ministry followed a fair and reasonable process in considering Tony’s bulk sample application.

We reviewed records related to Tony’s complaint and had numerous conversations with the ministry. Based on our review, the ministry agreed to a plan to help move Tony’s project forward and provided him with clear direction on how the application process would proceed. The plan outlined, among other things, that the ministry would create an appropriate technical contract and would provide ongoing feedback as required to Tony’s engineer. To prevent similar issues from occurring in the future, the ministry agreed to publish a new draft policy, an information document
and a fact sheet for people like Tony who were doing large bulk samples.