By James Matthews

Highlands East mineral sites continue to be a popular draw to the township.

Joanne Vanier, the township’s economic development advisor, gave a snapshot when council met Aug. 13 of development at some of the minerals sites.

She said the Schickler and Desmont claims are popular with amateur collectors and sporadic guided tours at the Schickler site.

“To date, we’ve still not any notification regarding our lease application on those two sites,” she said.

There’s a different story over at the Salerno Lake claim where work is slated to be started before June 2025.

“The road that travels through the claim is privately maintained and the only public access is via public boat launch at the north end of Salerno Lake,” Vanier said. “That’s owned by Minden Hills.”

There are currently seven cells to the claim, and each cell annually requires $200 of work to maintain it. There is one cell of the claim that could easily be dropped right away on the east corner that covers an area about the size of a picnic table.

“If after the mapping the area we’ll have a better idea of what’s there,” she said. “It might be possible to drop a few other cells on the edges of the claim.”

Dropping those edge cells would maintain the claim for a longer period of time, she said.

“I have been advised that this is a rich claim, offering a different experience from Schickler and Desmont,” Vanier said. “If we proceed with offering this claim to the public, the municipality will need to discuss access.

“Perhaps we could come to an agreement with the cottage association that maintains the road. The only other access would be the water.”

She said it’s important to mark the boundaries of the claim to ensure that the collectors respect the adjacent private property.

Mayor Dave Burton said that, when the Salerno Lake claim was staked, part of the experience would be crossing water to access it.

“We did look into, back that time you’ll probably remember, that we knew we were actually trespassing to get to it,” Burton said.

“That is just before my time,” Vanier said. “I wasn’t aware that you had discussed it.”

She said water access could be offered with the inclusion of some verbiage in the waiver that indicates that’s the only means of access. Regardless, some people will see there’s a road and try to use it even though it’s a private laneway.

Another site, the Railway claim, is accessed from the Irondale, Bancroft, and Ottawa Railway trail off Farr Road. It’s past the new bridge.

There is a road allowance that has been surveyed which leads to the claim through some very hilly terrain.

“I travelled that in 2022 and it was all I could do to get to the claim,” she said. “It was about an hour’s hike for me.”

Work has been done on the claim in 2021-22 to keep it in good standing through 2028 when work will need to be done to apply to 2029 and beyond.

If the township continues offering the site to the public, the municipality will need to work on better defining the trail. Serious mineral collectors would not be deterred by the uneven terrain or long hike.

On the trail to the claim is a cave of interest that will be at risk if more people travel by it. 

“The value of this cave is more for aesthetics than the actual crystals it contains,” Vanier said.

Expert advice on how to deal with that issue is recommended before the Railway claim is opened to the public.

“I do have access to several people who could give their expert opinion regarding how we could handle this,” she said.