The City of Whitehorse is moving ahead with a controversial request from Gladiator Metals Corp. to explore within the city limits.

According to O’Shea Jephson, a spokesperson for the city, “Following a technical review of a development permit application from Gladiator Metals, the city has issued a temporary development permit to allow exploration in the city limits.”

The permit is valid until Nov. 13, 2024, Jephson said today.

He explained the site is 29.8 hectares in size, and there will be 16 drill holes.

“The site is designated industrial in the Official Community Plan (OCP) and zoned a combination of Future Planning, Quarries and Heavy Industrial,” he stated in an email to the Star.

Jephson said the city had little choice about issuing the permit.

“Where an application meets the requirements of the Zoning Bylaw, the city must issue a development permit,” he explained.

“The permit also outlines a number of conditions, including noise mitigation, no storage of hydrocarbons on site, and no use of chemicals.

“There will be no impact to vegetation, and existing roads will be used,” Jephson added.

“The city will continue to monitor the site to ensure the company is compliant with its conditions. Any future development will require a new permit.”

The idea has stirred a considerable amount of opposition so far.

The group Yukoners Concerned has been formed to lobby against the prospect of mining within city limits, and has been appearing before council, as well as sending letters and meeting with territorial officials.

It made a presentation to council in November, with John McCleod representing the group.

He spoke about Gladiator’s drilling program in the south-end Cowley Creek area – but no one on city council asked any questions about his five-minute presentation.

McCleod described himself as a mining professional with more than 50 years’ experience.

He described how there are more than 300 historic mining claims that have now been purchased for properties within city limits in the Cowley Creek area.

“Few residents expected that, in 2023, a mining company could purchase these historic claims with the intent to explore,” McCleod said.

He added 314 of those claims have been purchased by Gladiator, which is now undertaking an exploratory drilling program.

“It is now within city limits, where most people thought it couldn’t occur,” he said.

Residents have complained about noise and environmental damage.

They have cited loud noise by heavy machinery, environmental impacts, water contamination, and negative impacts on the area’s caribou population and other wildlife.

The area affected is along the renowned Yukon Copper Belt, which at one time was a thriving copper mining region.

At the time the Copper Belt was in operation decades ago, McCleod said, Whitehorse had a population of only 14,000 people, and many of today’s subdivisions didn’t exist.

The OCP has been revised many times since, while the Yukon’s Mining Act has not.

The area has the potential to be a world-class deposit, McCleod told council – perhaps even as large as the second-largest copper mine in the world in South America.

That would all be within the city limits, he added.

“How many councillors think that would be a good idea?” he asked them.

Last Aug. 30, territorial court Judge John Phelps fined Gladiator $43,700 for six offences related to violating its class one mining permit under the Quartz Mining Act. Gladiator had pled guilty to all six counts.

The charges against the Australian-based mining company were laid after work it conducted in the Cowley Creek area.

They related to rutting and gouging roads and trails; carving out oversized clearings; upgrading access roads; removing the vegetative mat without storing it for use to restablish it; and failing to contain drill fluids in a sump. The fluid did not contain hydrocarbons nor chemicals.

The company’s lawyer said at the time Gladiator has accepted responsibility, had not disputed any of the charges, and had conducted reclamation work.

Two weeks before the sentencing, a protest was held outside the law courts building. More than 30 concerned citizens expressed their dismay about the company’s operations and environmental disruptions.