Every province has legislation regarding staking and the best way to find it is go to the provinces website you are interested in and read the mining act. It is easy to navigate through. In Newfoundland and Labrador, you have to obtain a licence and be registered with the province. A standard claim is 500m square and there are two ways to stake a claim. One is the old fashioned way where you go to the site, measure out your claim, square out a 4by4 stake (hence the name)on each corner and nail your ID tags on it. The new way in NL is map staking whereby all you need is a license, coordinates of your claim and a credit card.You can stake your claim electronically. There is a charge of $60.00 per claim. Once you have your claim, you can't just sit on it, you are committed to spend $200 in assessment work per claim the first year and submit an assessment report to the province. The second year you have to spend $250, the third $300 and on it goes. The description of the terms of the work is very detailed and the Act spells it out. Other provinces may differ but I would hazard to say they are all modeled after one another.