Buchans' town council says it's vital to determine once and for all who has the rights to develop one of the most potentially mineral-rich properties in the province.

The Mary March property near Red Indian Lake, based on limited drilling in the past, may have the potential to host commercial ore deposits similar to the Buchans Mine.

"Everybody's excited about it," said Buchans Mayor Derm Corbett. "Everyone I talked to, everyone who knows anything about mining, going back to Al Chislett when he was involved in it, everyone says that it's a good-looking property.

"There's no question about it. We'd like to see the thing resolved."

But it may not be resolved soon, as two companies, Canstar Resources and Vinland Resources, have warred over the property since 2000, when the latter filed applications seeking map staking licences over the Mary March discovery areas. The province's mineral claims record rejected the application; Vinland appealed again

Vinland is under the domain of CEO Al Chislett, known as one-half of the team which found and spearheaded the development of the Voisey's Bay mine in Labrador. When contacted for interviews relating to earlier stories about the dispute, Mr. Chislett had declined to comment, saying only the matter was still before the courts.

When asked if government would step into to resolve the dispute, Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale said there's not a resolution for that within in government.

"That's a legal issue, it's before the courts and that's where it's going to have to be resolved," she said.

That given, she added, players in the mining industry see Newfoundland in general in a positive light.

"When I go to the PDAC (Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada) conference in Toronto, which is the biggest mining conference in the country, the thing that I hear is that (Newfoundland) this is the best place in Canada to do business," said the minister.

"You can't do any better than that."

While the minister would not provide detail about the dispute, Mayor Corbett said it appears now that the best-case scenario is that it will get back into the courts in the late fall, probably October or November.

"That's another exploration season gone, no holes being drilled and no one on the ground there," he said. "Everyone is finding this extremely frustrating and we will be telling government that indeed, come the fall, if there is still no resolution, then we have to find another way to deal with this."

Harry Hodge, chairman of the board of Canstar, said he doesn't understand why the government seems so reluctant to end the dispute. He said he has been told government could quickly bring in new legislation to "fix" this problem and prevent a recurrence in the future.