The City of Whitehorse wants to change how it regulates mining and exploration work within city limits.

The city has developed a draft mineral exploration and development framework to provide more clarity around where and how mineral exploration and development can happen.

The idea for the framework originated after a resident made an application to city council to amend the city’s Official Community Plan (OCP) to ban mining activity in the city, said senior planner Dylan Harris. Council did not approve that motion, but it directed the city to develop regulation around mineral exploration, he said.

Right now, mineral exploration and development in Whitehorse is regulated by the territory’s Quartz Mining Act and the Municipal Act. 

The city’s OCP and zoning bylaw provides guidance about where mineral exploration and development can occur, but Harris says those could be more clear.

“We’re seeking to establish a framework that says where you can do certain activity, drilling or perhaps mine development,” he said. “We break it into tiers of activity based on intensity. So there’s five tiers, four of them address drilling or exploration, one addresses mine development.”

Some residents opposed to all mining activity in Whitehorse 

The draft framework is based on feedback gathered in 2024 and 2025 from Whitehorse residents. 

According to the city’s consultation report, out of 427 survey respondents, more than half said that all types of mineral exploration and development should not be allowed in city limits. The majority of respondents also said they were concerned about the impacts of mining activity.

“Their concerns are for sure around impact to their homes, whether that be noise or dust or other activities,” Harris said. “Also concern for the environment, water and air, wildlife, recreational space.”

However, some residents are supportive of mining activity in Whitehorse, Harris says. 

“We hear about folks identifying that the mining industry is important to the economy, providing jobs and that it has a long history in terms of how it shaped the Yukon.”

The group Yukoners Concerned is against all mineral exploration and development within city limits, said its chair Donald Roberts. He feels the draft framework doesn’t provide enough protections against the potentially harmful impacts of mining activity.

“You can have all kinds of regulations and you can have all kinds of guidance and what should be and what shouldn’t be. But the biggest problem is, who’s going to monitor it?” he said.

Roberts says he’s also concerned about the impact mining activity will have on recreational activities in the city.

“[These areas] are utilized for walking, running, biking, backcountry exploring, all these things. They’re going to lose that,” he said.

Exploration company says framework creates uncertainty 

Marcus Harden, president of Gladiator Metals — a Vancouver-based company with mineral claims in Whitehorse — expressed his concerns about the proposed framework to city council last week.

Harden told council that under the new framework, tier one activities, or low-impact exploration, is restricted to less than 30 per cent of the current claim area and tier three activities, or medium-impact exploration, is restricted to less than three per cent. 

He added that the framework creates uncertainty and makes mineral rights “unusable in practice.”

Harden told council that he would like the framework to be adjusted to allow for wider access to claims.

According to Harris, the framework is intended to balance the economic benefits of mining activity with the need to reduce its impacts.

“This framework does restrict where folks could explore, where their claims are and in what manner they could explore,” he said.

“In other aspects, the framework is enabling in some ways … enabling exploration in certain parts of the city where it’s not currently enabled, provided that a lower impact form of exploration is used,” he said.

Now that the draft framework has been released, the city says it is engaging with residents, stakeholders and other governments. 

It is holding a second open house about the framework Thursday from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Canada Games Centre in Whitehorse. 

Residents can also provide feedback through an online survey until March 9.