Mining and exploration companies with hundreds or thousands of claims don’t have to worry anymore about keeping track of their expiry dates.
A new, online expiry notification service offered by Caracle Creek International Consulting Inc. (CCIC) will send email alerts to a laptop or Blackberry warning mining claim holders about any impending expiries.
The CCIC Mining Claims Management Service, developed by CCIC senior geomatics specialist Jiro Shirota and introduced at the Ontario Geological Symposium in December, integrates the Ministry of Northern Development and Mines’ CLAIMaps application with Google Earth. In addition to receiving email alerts, users can access the CCIC site and view their claims superimposed on Google Earth maps. Claims shaded green are good for 365 days or more. Those expiring in 60 to 365 days are shaded yellow, while those due to expire within 60 days are red.
Expiry dates and claim numbers can also be imported into Google Calendar or Outlook.
Free trial
The service is offered by annual subscription, but claim holders can register for a 30-day free trial. The subscription fee starts at $1,500 per year for the standard service. Additional charges apply if a user has special needs requiring customization.
"If you have 50 or 100 claims, the standard service is OK, but if you have 1,000 or more claims, it might be beneficial to tweak it to your specifications," said CCIC marketing and sales manager Ray Quenville. "Gone are the days of relying on an Excel spreadsheet."
Users can also take advantage of the service to monitor the expiry of claims that aren’t registered to them.
"You can get email alerts on claims that you may have your eye on," said Quenville. "We don’t need to know if you own the claim. For example, if you’re interested in a claim in the Ring of Fire, you can select it to generate an alert. We’re not breaking any laws. It’s public knowledge. So there are two sides to this. You can watch your own claims and you can watch someone else’s."
To date, the service is able to track claims in Ontario, British Columbia and Newfoundland. Including the other provinces and territories "will take more legwork because they do things differently," said Quenville.
The service can provide alerts for more than 100,000 claims – 45,000 in Ontario, 57,000 in British Columbia and 3,100 in Newfoundland and Labrador.
"If this can avoid one claim being lost, it can pay for itself," said Quenville.
For a free trial, go to www.ccicclaims.com.
