MONTREAL – When Ellen Rice-Hogan discovered that someone had bought a mining claim under her farm, she was shocked. There’s no mining around the Township of Low, Que., about 40 kilometres...
Yes. My also limited understanding is that it might be traced back to some of the original treaties with the Indigenous peoples which said (or at least implied) that the Indigenous peoples were ceding only the surface to a depth of several inches.
Sadly, the government then turned that into "Crown ownership" (as contrasted with private ownership) instead of Indigenous ownership. Much to the detriment of the economic and political power of the Indigenous peoples.
Just to reiterate a point in the article, just because you’ve got mining claims doesn’t mean you can just come in and start digging, you need written permission from the landowner before any mining related work can begin (even test holes)