**STUDIO GUIDELINE 05**

# Ethical Sourcing & Mineral Stewardship: The BC Free Miner Standard

*Dug by Hand. Crafted by Heart. | Fall 7, Stand 8.*

Public home: https://uniqueperspective8.com/ethical-sourcing/bc-free-miner-stewardship-standard/

## Purpose
This paper is the long form of how Unique Perspective 8 collects, verifies, and documents stone. It is not a mine permit, not a claim, and not an assay certificate.

## Transparent provenance
The commercial mineral trade often hides treatment, origin, and method. We document from river corridor to bench. If a sentence cannot be tied to a date, a place, and a method, it does not belong on a listing.

## Recreational vs commercial
Governed by the BC Mineral Tenure Act.

- Recreational rockhounding: small amounts for personal use. Not a right to sell. Not mechanized work.
- Free Miner Certificate (FMC): standing required for small-scale commercial collecting and lawful prospecting. Not a mine permit.
- Method: hand tools only — hammers, chisels, pans. Zero motorized disturbance.

UP8's founder holds an FMC. That number belongs on a provenance card when the extraction was done under that standing. It does not travel onto every shop object.

## Mineral Titles Online (MTO)
Before fieldwork:

- Identify unencumbered Crown land.
- Check active mineral and placer claims.
- Distinguish public land, private property, and protected parklands.
- Respect existing tenure boundaries.

## Territory and heritage
Work takes place on the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan Nation in the South Okanagan and Similkameen valleys.

Under the BC Heritage Conservation Act: artifacts, historic structures, rock art, pictographs, and fossil sites stay in place. Unexpected cultural discovery protocol: leave untouched, record GPS, notify provincial authorities immediately.

## Riparian protection
Similkameen and Okanagan river systems first.

- Pack it in, pack it out.
- Backfill every test pit to natural contour.
- Leave no lasting visual or physical scar.

## Provenance architecture
Permanent field ID at discovery (example: UP8-050-SIM).

A physical provenance card carries:

- Date and location of the find
- Geological formation
- FMC registration number when applicable
- Artisan signature

Studio work: recycled copper or recycled 925 sterling wire, depending on the piece. No synthetic resins or artificial coatings. Drop-shipped goods are labeled and sit outside these claims.

## Website homes
- https://uniqueperspective8.com/ethical-sourcing/bc-free-miner-stewardship-standard/
- https://uniqueperspective8.com/ethical-sourcing/
- https://uniqueperspective8.com/provenance.html
- https://uniqueperspective8.com/ethics.html