The Tahltan Central Council said late Monday that the agreement it came to with the provincial government, called the Klappan Coal Licence Deferral Area Order, allowed time for the two to continue discussions and find a mutual decision for an “acceptable and sustainable future for this important part of British Columbia”.

The KCLDA impacts 62 current coal exploration licenses over an area of about 255,000 hectares in an area known to the tribe as the Sacred Headwaters.

“[I]t holds significant value to the Tahltan people where they continue to hunt, camp teach and carry out other cultural activities,” the group said.

“It also feeds three of the region's major salmon-bearing rivers - the Skeena, Stikine and Nass.”

Existing coal authorizations and tenures are not included in the freeze, TCC said. Included in those projects allowed to continue is the already-approved Fortune Minerals Arctos anthracite project.

“The Tahltan Nation is united in its opposition to development in our Sacred Headwaters,” Tahltan Central Council president Annita McPhee said.

“This agreement gives us some temporary reprieve, and is the first step in long journey towards a protection plan for the Klappan. We will continue to resist any industrial development there like the Arctos project that threatens to destroy our land and culture.”

The hold is not the first victory for the tribe, as the Tahltan Nation has long opposed industrial development in that area of northwestern BC.

Earlier this year, it played a role in an exploratory work idle at the Fortune Minerals Arctos open-cut project, and last year it saw Shell relinquish rights in the region following years of protests.

Tahltan Central Council is the governing body of the Tahltan Nation.