OP/ED: ‘Golden Triangle’ no longer? Mining, a new moratorium, and litigation in B.C.’s northwest

The following piece, by Karen Graham and ICBA Chief Economist Jock Finlayson, was published by The Fraser Institute on June 18, 2026.

Interpreting the British Columbia government’s “Look West” strategy, it appears the road to making Canada a critical minerals powerhouse runs through the province’s “Golden Triangle”—a minerals- and precious metals-rich region of northwestern B.C., spanning roughly 100,000 square kilometres and accounting for ~75 per cent of Canada’s copper reserves, plus notable reserves of gold, silver and molybdenum. The mining, mineral exploration and infrastructure sectors view it the same way. Observing a belated push by Ottawa and the provincial government to prioritize critical minerals, industry publications have embraced the region as a “golden age for B.C.’s Golden Triangle” (Mining News, 2025), and an “emerging nation-building mining hub” (Chamber of Shipping, 2026).

This region serves as opportunity and a litmus test:

• for coordinated government policy, priority-setting, and a commitment to speedier regulatory decisions, including timely permitting
• for a needed boost in economic activity from additional mineral development, meaning billions of dollars of capital investment and billions more in additional export receipts, taxes, wages and local economic benefits
• for the ancillary services that can lift and connect communities in the region through electricity and highway infrastructure improvements ($6 billion and $195 million have been committed, respectively, by Victoria and Ottawa)
• last but not least, for advancing reconciliation with the region’s Indigenous nations

Potential Economic Impact

The scale of the opportunity in the Golden Triangle is material for the wellbeing of the province. The economic impacts of 27 proposed mining projects across the province are pegged at $90 billion of incremental economic output; $41 billion of capital invested; $7.3 billion in tax revenue; and 10,000-12,000 direct jobs at average salaries approaching $139,000 per year. Today, mined commodities account for 28 per cent of B.C.’s goods exports, a share that’s likely to rise in the coming years if several new large mines proceed.

Indigenous Relations and Land Use Policy

While theoretically promising, B.C.’s courts and the government itself are hindering the province’s mining opportunity, at least in the near term. B.C. court judgements in two Indigenous-related cases have sent the relevant legal framework into unpredictable territory; and the NDP government’s own decision-making contradicts its stated aspiration to leverage the province’s abundant critical minerals opportunity and spur natural resource development more generally as central planks of its “Look West” strategy.

In December 2025, the B.C. Court of Appeal ruled that the province’s Mineral Tenure Act (MTA) and claim registration process violate the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act (DRIPA), adopted by the Legislature several years ago. It does so, the court ruled, by failing to incorporate the principles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) into the MTA to secure free, prior and informed consent by affected First Nations before a claim may be registered. This decision sent shock waves across B.C.’s natural resource sectors, which all rely heavily on access to Crown land to search for, develop and produce the resource-based goods that make up more than three-quarters of the province’s merchandise exports. Premier David Eby decried the Court of Appeal ruling, arguing that it misunderstood the intention of B.C. legislators when they passed DRIPA and threatened to undermine the province’s ability to manage and regulate activity on Crown lands, notably mine staking and mineral exploration.

Then in June 2026, a B.C. Supreme Court found the provincial Crown had neglected to undertake sufficient consultation with Tsetsaut Skii km Lax Ha (TSKLH) Nation before making a determination, under the Environmental Assessment Act, that Seabridge Inc. had “substantially started” its $5 billion KSM copper-gold mining project in the Golden Triangle (Seabridge 2026).

The B.C. government’s abrupt moratorium extension to Jan. 31, 2027, for mineral exploration (new claims only) over 16 million hectares in northwest B.C. clashes with its happy narrative that the province is an emerging global critical minerals heavyweight. Awkwardly, the moratorium landed in the same week as the province was leading a joint business-government delegation to Ottawa to promote mining in B.C.

We see two areas where these developments harm B.C.’s value proposition for mining, specific to the Golden Triangle, but also throughout the province:

1. The abrupt moratorium extension sends a chilling message to those wishing to pursue opportunities in B.C.’s land-based extractive sectors. Further, the cascade of Indigenous-related court decisions casts a cloud over the future of mining in the province.
2. For the judiciary, it seems that a governmental decision to prioritize the development of a particular economic sector to advance the wider public interest no longer carries much weight in court decision-making, at least when Aboriginal rights and title matters are involved.

If the B.C. mining sector cannot fulfil the opportunities to invest $41 billion to find and produce critical minerals, and to generate $90 billion in economic output (from the 27 proposed B.C.-wide projects identified by MABC), the province will be poorer. In-demand minerals and metals will not be used to Canada’s and our allies’ benefit. Investment dollars—and the jobs and tax revenues they generate—will shift to other jurisdictions with more predictable legal and policy regimes for land-based natural resource activity. The goal of achieving reconciliation with Indigenous peoples is likely to be set back, as more areas of the province become “no-go” zones for business investment and economic development and the broader B.C. economy suffers as a result.